Joaquin Phoenix plays a strong Johnny Cash. In fact, some folks might even like his voice better than Johnny's. Interestingly enough, the director Cast Joaquin almost on his photo alone and Joaquin wanted the part even without reading the script. Johnny Cash himself liked Joaquin as an actor based on his role in Gladiator.

That said, there's a bit too much Joaquin in this picture -- he's in every single scene (save for the first 10 minutes, a twelve year old actor plays Cash). Reese is also strong as June Carter, but two standout emotional moments go to actors of much smaller roles. Robert Patrick nails a Thanksgiving Day family scene as Cashes tough as nails father. (Btw, Patrick was also awesome in "Terminator 2" -- he was the indestructible cyber-cop.) And the actor who plays the recording studio owner -- he had himself a nice strong speech -- usually the stuff reserved for main characters. At such a pivotal juncture in the film, he shined bright in his 50 seconds of screen time.

As for the picture on the whole: impressive out of the gates, but as it goes on and on and on -- well it gets a bit tedious to watch Joaquin Cash stumble all over his personal life. Maybe that's just because I saw Ray not so long ago. They're nearly the same story. I wasn't crazy about seeing Ray Charles mistreat good people, and I guess I felt the same about Cash. They were both icons I'd admired and it's not so fun to watch heroes behave like butt-heads for 3/4's of their bio films.

This film screened at a Krikorian Theatre.