Years later, and after serving a stint in the Army, Johnny (JOAQUIN PHOENIX) is married to Vivian (GINNIFER GOODWIN), has a child with her, and isn't very good at being a door to door salesman in Memphis, Tennessee. He then happens upon a small recording studio run by Sam Phillips (DALLAS ROBERTS) who he convinces to let him, guitarist Luther Perkins (DAN JOHN MILLER) and bassist Marshall Grant (LARRY BAGBY) audition. Sam isn't impressed and says that their gospel music won't sell, asking if they have anything else.

When Johnny starts playing and singing a song he penned while in the service, he creates a sound that soon makes him a sensation. It's not long before he's touring with the likes of other up and coming stars such as Elvis Presley (TYLER HILTON) and Jerry Lee Lewis (WAYLON MALLOY PAYNE), but Johnny is most interested in June Carter (REESE WITHERSPOON) who's been a performer most of her life.

While on tour with her and the others, Johnny starts falling for her, but various conditions and events prevent anything from blossoming. And that mainly pertains to Vivian who's back home and upset with Johnny over never being around for her and their kids, as well as his growing dependency on prescription medication. With that affecting his career, Johnny must choose what to do with his life as he continues to pursue his music career as well as June's heart.

Musical biopics have been hot of recent, and this latest release will no doubt benefit from yet be judged against the success of last year's "Ray." That look at Ray Charles earned Oscar nominations and a win for Jamie Foxx in the lead role. While he didn't do any of the actual singing, he otherwise did a spot on impersonation of the music legend, right down to tickling the ivories. Of course, he had the dark shades that helped in the visual look, something not afforded Joaquin Phoenix in tackling the role of playing Cash.

Yet, he does something that Foxx chose not to do -- and that's actually sing the songs with his own voice. While his portrayal of the country star isn't as refined as Foxx's of Charles, he sounds quite a bit like Cash in the legend's various signature songs (at least from his earlier years), and that goes a long way toward making the film so good.

In fact -- and is often the case with such films -- it's those musical performances that turn out to be the highlight. Whether performing solo or alongside Reese Witherspoon -- who portrays star June Carter in another terrific performance -- Phoenix ignites the screen whenever he dons the guitar and starts belting out the songs in Cash's trademark gravely voice. It's in such moments that any disbelief of thinking you're seeing the real thing is mostly if not completely suspended.

When the music stops, however, the film goes through the standard biopic formula and it's here where the similarities to "Ray" are the most striking. It's not that writer/director James Mangold ("Identity," "Girl Interrupted") or co-screenwriter Gill Dennis ("Without Evidence") -- who've adapted Cash's two books about his life -- copied the previous year's release, notwithstanding following the conventions of the genre.

Rather, it's that the two singers' lives were amazingly alike. Both were born in the poor South, were scarred by the childhood deaths of their brothers, became big stars in roughly the same time period but succumbed to the temptations of drugs and women, two scourges that threatened both their careers and marriages.

More so than with "Ray," however, this is a love story, albeit one that spans decades and eventually ended with the passing of Johnny and June within months of each other in 2003. She's credited with having saved his life and resurrecting his career (getting him to kick drugs and turn to God) and we get to see the pre-marriage aspects of that (the movie ends in 1968, thus sharing another similarity with "Ray" by skipping the latter decades of the artists' lives).

And it's with those moments -- both on and off stage, that the movie also shines. There's a palpable chemistry between Phoenix and Witherspoon's characters that ignites the movie nearly as much as the music. While they must traverse the usual trappings of such biopics (the historical ups and downs and other standard plot elements), the two are terrific in their respective roles. While their vocal performances are amazing (who knew the two could sing so well), they also create compelling and complex characters that engage the viewer from start to finish.

Supporting performances from the likes of Ginnifer Goodwin as Johnny's long-suffering wife, Robert Patrick as his stern and demeaning father and Dan John Miller as his lead guitarist are all solid. Tyler Hilton and Waylon Malloy Payne get the unenviable tasks of portraying Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis respectively, but both are good in their roles and it's those early scenes in the film's first half that are the most entertaining, at least from a dramatic standpoint. Things turn more somber once those characters are jettisoned, and the film misses the energy generated by those first half moments.

Yet, and not surprisingly, the music is the true star. When Phillips -- played by Dallas Roberts -- encourages, nay, challenges a young Cash to play something he truly believes in while auditioning for him, the scene turns infectiously magic as Phoenix slowly starts to play "I Walk the Line" and then picks up the tempo and intensity, eventually joined by his band-mates until they become an unstoppable force. From then through the time they play Folsom Prison (in the famous live recording session) -- but particularly when Phoenix and Witherspoon perform their duets -- any time the music starts, we know we're in for an often exhilarating, toe-tapping time.

Perhaps too conventional in its drama and unfortunately a bit too similar to "Ray" in terms of plot elements, the film benefits from the brilliant musical sequences and award-worthy performances by the leads. "Walk the Line" rates as a 6.5 out of 10.