Walk the Line

James Mangold does not let the songs be mimed. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon sing every vocal themselves, prepared by T Bone Burnett; Phoenix worked with a coach to drop his voice an octave, Witherspoon learned the autoharp. What you hear in the concert scenes is a sound made on the day, not a record playing underneath. The screenplay was distilled from two separate Cash autobiographies, and took about a decade to assemble; Gill Dennis had been interviewing Johnny Cash and June Carter since the mid nineties. Both approved the casting in 2003, and both died that same year. The story closes on the Folsom prison concert of 1968 and the proposal made from the stage. Cash lived another 35 years after that, so the recordings many listeners reached him through sit entirely outside the film. The Academy nominated it five times, for leading actor, leading actress, costume design, editing and sound mixing, and Witherspoon won the acting award. BAFTA handed it two prizes, leading actress and sound, and it turned all three of its Golden Globe nominations into wins. A good fit if it matters that the performances are sung rather than dubbed and you accept a story stopping in 1968. Not for anyone waiting for the late recordings, or who would rather avoid the stretches given to addiction.