Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash)
Before seeing this film, I knew next to nothing about Johnny Cash. I knew he sang country songs in what I thought was the 70s. Thanks to Joaquin's performance, I am now a Johnny Cash fan with plenty of songs downloaded into my iPod. I think Joaquin was unbelievably good in this film. He simply became Johnny Cash. I really enjoyed this film, much more than I had expected to, and it is largely due to his outstanding performance. I did not think that anyone could compete with Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain for my favourite male role so far this year - but Joaquin is nipping at his heels. In many ways, playing a real person is much more difficult given the inherent comparisons that will be made and in my mind, Joaquin compared extremely well to what I now know of the real deal. And his impressive vocals just added to what was a first rate performance.

Reese Witherspoon (June Carter)
Another suprise - having seen (and not altogether loved) her in Legally Blonde, I was sceptical of what she could do in this role. However Reese was damn fine as June. At times I thought her almost too perfect and too good to be true, but that aside, I thought she also fell into the role with ease and her singing was incredibly good. There seemed to be real chemistry with Joaquin which simply added to the magic of the film.

Gennifer Goodwin (Vivian)
Poor old Vivian - she gets a bit of a rough portrayal in this film. She seemed like a patient woman - putting up with a pill popping, womanising alcoholic who was on the road most of the year - that would have been difficult for anyone. To then have him flaunting his relationship with June on stage in front of millions, well it is no wonder that she up and left him. I think Gennifer did an OK job in what was a limited part. Gennifer made the role as sympathetic as she could, but could not help but ended up coming off cold given the script.