GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

xx All of Us
53 Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
57 Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
64 Appaloosa
69 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
xx B.O.H.I.C.A.
62 Baghead
84 Ballast
54 Battle in Seattle
xx Beer for My Horses
75 Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx Billy: The Early Years
66 Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
56 Bottle Shock
55 Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50 Breakfast with Scot
61 Brick Lane
43 Call and Response
62 Changeling
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
47 Choke
46 Choose Connor
84 Christmas Tale, A
41 Cthulhu
81 Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx Dostana
62 Duchess, The
46 Dukes, The
63 Eden
xx Eden Lake
66 Elegy
46 Elephant King, The
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
69 Fear(s) of the Dark
26 Filth and Wisdom
28 Fireproof
52 First Basket, The
67 Flow: For Love of Water
37 Forever Strong
69 Frontrunners
82 Frozen River
43 Gardens of the Night
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54 Good Dick
30 Guitar, The
84 Happy-Go-Lucky
44 Henry Poole is Here
31 Hounddog
27 House of the Sleeping Beauties
47 How About You
54 Humboldt County
72 I Served the King of England
70 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
64 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
78 I've Loved You So Long
63 JCVD
41 Johnny Got His Gun
xx Just Buried
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
25 Lake City
78 Last Mistress, The
81 Let the Right One In
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
xx Mary
xx Matador, The
62 Mister Foe
84 Momma's Man
51 Morning Light
79 Moving Midway
33 My Name Is Bruce
59 Nights and Weekends
73 Obscene
40 Other End of the Line, The
34 Otto; or Up with Dead People
40 Passengers
xx Phoebe in Wonderland
55 Ping Pong Playa
75 Pool, The
77 Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82 Rachel Getting Married
56 Religulous
32 Repo! The Genetic Opera
xx Roadside Romeo
53 RocknRolla
56 Save Me
74 Secret, A
45 Shoot on Sight
57 Sixty Six
85 Slumdog Millionaire
56 Special
58 Splinter
79 Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67 Synecdoche, New York
82 Tell No One
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
57 Towelhead
72 Transsiberian
83 Trouble the Water
43 Tru Loved
83 U2 3D
61 Universe of Keith Haring
84 Up the Yangtze
52 Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
59 We Are Wizards
55 What Just Happened?
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Walk the Line
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Walk the Line reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.7 out of 10
based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 146 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, Dallas Roberts, Dan John Miller, Larry Bagby, and Shelby Lynne

The story of the young Johnny Cash and his incendiary love affair with June Carter Cash come to life in Walk the Line. (20th Century Fox)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Musical  
WRITTEN BY: Gill Dennis
James Mangold
 
DIRECTED BY: James Mangold  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 28, 2006 
Theatrical: November 18, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 136 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Won Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) at the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Walk the Line superbly combines music and two of the year's most riveting performances to tell one of the screen's great love stories.
Read Full Review
100
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
What Phoenix and Witherspoon accomplish in this movie is transcendent. They act with every bone and inch of flesh and facial plane, and each tone and waver of their voice.
Read Full Review
90
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Breaks through the conventions of its biopic form with a pair of brilliant performances and a whole lot more.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It's a celebration of the good times and bad times shared by a man and woman who found each other in the middle of some historic craziness, and it rocks.
Read Full Review
88
USA Today Mike Clark
A Johnny Cash biopic equally packed with music and frustrated love, Walk the Line goes from compelling to enthralling.
Read Full Review
88
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The film sends you home moved and in a tuneful mood.
Read Full Review
88
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Witherspoon has nailed it before, notably in "Election," but her portrayal of June is astounding in its vitality and richness.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
What adds boundless energy to Walk the Line is the performance by Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A big, juicy, enjoyable wide-canvas biography with a handful of indelible moments.
Read Full Review
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The movie is entertaining, reasonably true to the facts of its subject's life and full of music.
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
As the star-crossed couple, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon contribute all their own vocals, and their soapier scenes together reminded me of no less than the 1954 "A Star Is Born."
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
I suspect many Cash fans will think it's too conventional. But I think its conventionality is part of its power.
Read Full Review
80
Slate David Edelstein
In spite of its standard biopic gaps and simplifications, Walk the Line gets the big things right.
Read Full Review
80
Empire Colin Kennedy
Witherspoon's June is a pistol - a sugar-rush of screwball energy and cornball Southern sass that's meticulously earthed with grace notes of sadness.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Mangold, Phoenix, and Witherspoon, all excellent in their roles.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Cash was a true anomaly: a poseur who was also the genuine article. A better movie would have made that contradiction its core.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It doesn't matter much that Phoenix and Witherspoon sound more like Phoenix and Witherspoon than Cash and Carter. The chemistry is there. The actors walk their own line, successfully.
Read Full Review
75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
This movie has a driving plotline that "Ray" lacked - a love story. To me, that's what elevates this film.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A passionate, chronicle of an extraordinary artist, and a love story that can't be beat.
Read Full Review
75
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Thanks to the movie's very clear respect for Cash and his music, and thanks mostly to the two superb, heartfelt performances by Reese Witherspoon as Carter and Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Walk the Line eventually earned my sympathy.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
It's frustrating that a movie about a man so deathly serious about music has largely boiled his life down to addiction and adultery.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
What Walk the Line does well, it does really well. Mangold was ­wisely gen­erous with the amount of musical performance he included in the film, and the later scenes - showing Cash and Carter as partners - are so well shot and edited, they defy you to sit still.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Conventional to the core but gets a blast of pure, hard-driving energy from Joaquin Phoenix's and Reese Witherspoon's vividly realized performances.
Read Full Review
75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Cash made some untamed, exhilarating sounds in its formative days. Walk the Line is strongest when it shows him in love with either his music or his muse.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The best moments in Walk the Line are the plentiful musical sequences, from Cash's initial foray into the Sun Records studio in Memphis, to his nights performing in high school auditoriums alongside the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, to his landmark concert at Folsom Prison in 1968, where his dangerous, edgy persona was cemented.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Todd McCarthy
Walk the Line is a strongly acted, musically vibrant, conventionally satisfying biopic of country/rock/blues legend Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter.
Read Full Review
70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
An engaging biopic that would totally lack surprise were it not for Reese Witherspoon, and a healthy touch of ambivalence about the populist myth that bound The Man in Black to his adoring public.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The movie is less an uncharted journey than a 2 p.m. bus tour of a music industry legend. But like an expert guide, Mangold shepherds the story with enough grace, energy and skill to make it worthwhile.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The decision to approach Johnny's life as a love story causes Mangold to neglect the development of Johnny's music.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The problem is that the movie plays down almost everything that made Cash great: the train rumble of a voice, the direct, poetic truth of his best lyrics, the invention of his outlaw image and his constant creativity.
Read Full Review
60
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Cash is a legend, and deserving of a more thoughtful portrayal than what we’re offered here.
Read Full Review
60
Newsweek David Ansen
This Man in Black is, frankly, a bit of a wuss. As a love story, Walk the Line can seduce. As a biopic, it treads awfully familiar Overcoming Adversity turf.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Unfortunately, for all its good music and admirable vocal impersonations, Walk the Line slides -- very, very slowly -- downhill.
Read Full Review
60
New York Magazine Ken Tucker
There are too many musical performances in this movie, even for a country fan such as myself, to keep the city slickers engaged. This bespeaks great faith in the charisma of the stars, who merit it. They also, however, deserved a better script.
Read Full Review
60
The New Yorker David Denby
I couldn't imagine anyone better suited to play the role. But this movie is a lot less interesting than it might be. Though it's not bad--in fact, it's rather sweet--it's too simple a portrait of a very complicated and calculating entertainer.
Read Full Review
50
Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
For all the affection Mangold feels for Cash and Carter, the movie feels oddly dispassionate.
Read Full Review
50
Village Voice J. Hoberman
In no way obsessive, Walk the Line is more sincerely--which is to say, more boringly--sincere. It doesn't leave you with much to think about, except maybe the empty vibrato of effective ventriloquism.
Read Full Review
50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Ends up being another one of those life-of-an-entertainer films that reduces an artist to his most embarrassing moments.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Dana Stevens
There is no way a feature-length movie could do justice to such bounty, and Walk the Line settles for the minimum.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 146 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert L. gave it a4:
The story was familiar and simplistic, but heart affecting. Reese does an excellent job of acting and reasonably good singing, but Joaquin's one note acting and thin, off key singing ruined the story for me. I wish they would have used the original artist recordings to give true honor to the music instead of the karaoke subsitute we got.

Christian W. gave it a5:
Disappointing. Seemed to gloss over Johnny's dark side, drug use, arrest etc. Various scenes such as when Johnny or June are inspired to write a certain song were painfully contrived. Cash fans, I would say give it a miss and check out some of the good docos on his life instead.

Preston J gave it a5:
I'm sorry but as a film and the story that they told... I was not impressed. Yes Reese Witherspoon is a very talented actress, but Phoenix is bland and only shows rare glimmers of depth in this movie. As far as story telling goes I feel it was very rushed and basic. Rock star has traumatic childhood, Rock Star Becomes Famous, Rock Star Does Drugs, Girl rehabilitates Rock Star, Rock Star Gets Girl... every rock star movie follows said story.... blah.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Although I'm not American, Johnny Cash is for me a really great man, as he is a great musician. The movie shows him on his wrong and right sides, and is very affecting (don't know if this his the right word to tell how much i was touched) Moreover, the performance of Phoenix and Whiterspoon is really impressive.

Jared B. gave it a10:
Wow! What a great movie! Everything, from the cast to the script, was incredible. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing as the late, great Johnny Cash. And I can certainly see why Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar. She is so talented and, speaking from a male point of view, hot. Anyway, this was the best biopic of a country star's life since "Coal Miner's daughter."

John R. gave it a10:
I must have seen this movie about a million times already, and it just seems to be getting better and better every time I see it. The issues that Johnny Cash went through and the tours he was on were portrayed well. Reese Witherspoon was fantastic in the flick, she's got the pipes in her family. Awesome job by the entire crew and a great movie to have in the collection of DVDs at home.

Mike S. gave it a2:
I was surpirsed at how bad this movie was. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use