Walk The Line, Ray*

Quick, which movie is this: A singer loses a brother in childhood, grows up, marries, fights his way into the music industry, meets a girl on the road and falls in love with her but their relationship struggles due to the fact that he is still married. He has a drug problem that nearly destroys him, but he eventually overcomes the addiction and becomes a music legend. Hilarity ensues.

If you said Ray, you are right. If you said Walk The Line, you would also be right. Both these movies have a ton of similar plot points. So you can say I guess that Walk The Line is the country music version of Ray since Ray came out first.

Ray: The true life story of legendary blues singer Ray Charles from loosing his eyesight in early childhood, to his rising career during the 1950s and 1960s, and his problems with racism, drug abuse, failed relationships and his ideas to change the pace of music by combining soul and gospel music. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Jamie Foxx played the piano in all scenes himself. Jamie Foxx had to wear eye prosthetics that really did make him blind for up to 14 hours a day during shooting.

Believe it or not, I was disappointed in this film. It was okay, but very slow and plodding. I kept looking at my watch. Jamie Foxx deserved his Oscar, and the music was great but it lacked energy or something, I don’t know what it was.

Walk The Line: A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, his love for June Carter and their struggles through his drug addiction. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Johnny Cash chose Joaquin Phoenix to play him in the film. June Carter Cash reportedly chose Reese Witherspoon for her role in the film, also. Joaquin Phoenix performed all of the songs himself without being dubbed and learned to play guitar from scratch. Reese Witherspoon did her own singing. She also had to learn to play the auto-harp.

This was a lot better movie in my mind then Ray. It had more energy, more vitality, and yes, more Reese Witherspoon (I know you were thinking about my very obvious infatuation in the Oscar Winning actress, but even my mother said Reese lit up the screen). I saw both films within 3 weeks so both are fresh on my mind. Walk The Line was better. It’s a shame it was not nominated for Best Picture.

*P.S., this is my 200th post. Pretty amazing if you think about it, at first I was thinking, how am I going to find things to put on this blog. My sister Kim got me started on this and coincidentally, today is the first anniversary of her first post on her blog.