Jonathan Deamer

After the high-school hell of Election and the Paris Hilton-gone-to-law-school shtick of Legally Blonde, a serious biopic of arguably one of the important and influential musicians of all time is the last thing you’d expect of Reese Witherspoon. Nonetheless, alongside Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, she does a convincing job in Walk the Line, an award-winning depiction of the life of country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash.

The film details Cash’s troubled childhood as the son of a cotton picker, through to his early exploits in the music world, struggle with drug addiction and tours with Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. For the most part it faithfully retells a story that, even without the embellishments of a Hollywood scriptwriter, would be both exciting and tragic enough. In reality, a hugely successful, yet fairly straightforward career followed until his death in 2003 – but that wouldn’t make for much of a blockbuster, would it? So instead, director James Mangold of Girl, Interrupted fame exaggerates the relationship between cash and touring partner June Carter (Witherspoon) to such at extent that the resulting film is less a powerful story of a great man’s life, more the sort of overly sentimental thing you’d catch in the small hours on the Hallmark channel.

With songs like Cash’s though, even a piece of cinematic bubblegum like Dude, Where’s My Car? could come across like an epic. Fans of his music will struggle to find better entertainment than the in-film live performance sequences this side of the original vinyl – but purists steer clear.