Cash in hand

Apparently Aidan is 'addicted' to posting stuff on this blog... or maybe just addicted to pigeons. Either way, here's something else. (By the way thanks for posting the Joni Mitchell MP3 and artwork - all you readers out there can now find out what all the fuss was about - woopee!)

(Also, don't ask what the title means - it was just the least bad pun I thought of.)

Musical biopics seem to be all the rage these days, what with Jamie Foxx injecting some extra life into Ray Charles' legacy (not to mention Kanye West's bank account). But any director will find it hard to top James Mangold's superb effort, 'Walk the Line', starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

I liked Ray, but it's kind of like the Orlando Bloom to Walk the Line's Johnny Depp in PotC. (Except I don't like Orlando Bloom at all. But never mind.) I wasn't the biggest Johnny Cash fan before watching it, probably because my dad really liked his stuff so I was bound by the laws of adolescence not to - but that all changed upon viewing.

Yes, the script and screenplay are great, the cinematography leaves nothing to be desired and all that. But really you walk away from this film bowled over by the performances of the main characters, with Phoenix and Witherspoon topping the credit list.

First, they both sing everything, which is pretty darn impressive in itself. Second, they're both utterly convincing, with Phoenix depicting Cash's rise, fall and recovery with excruciatingly tragic transparency. Witherspoon defies anyone who would pin her down to saccharine chick flicks by putting in one of the most rounded performances I've ever seen, portraying June Carter's simultaneous fragility and resolve, combined with an extravagantly gracious character.

The story is sad but has a happy ending, which doesn't feel like a cop-out because it's actually true. And the music is great, involving a lot of shootings, prisons, women and of course the blues. You'll get shivers down your spine when you see him picking out the nascent chords of 'Folsom Prison Blues' (those three words basically sum up the lyrics content of everything he's ever done) and hear those words 'I hear the train a-comin'...'

In a word: Fancashtic.

(Sorry.)