Over the last few years, there has been an eclectic mix of Phoenix films -- Quills, the Marquis De Sade biopic; Ladder 49, a post-9/11 firefighter movie; Signs and The Village, both Manoj Night Shyamalam movies; and Hotel Rwanda, with Don Cheadle. The result? A very well-known face.
And then came Johnny Cash.
James Mangold's Walk The Line was always going to be a tough ask.
For one, Joaquin had to play a super-recognised American icon, Johnny Cash, a man half a foot taller than himself.
Secondly, he had to sing all his own vocal bits, and this would obviously be tampering with genius.
Thirdly, he had to deal with a film about a man struggling to come to grips with his brother's death -- even as his frequent drug and rehab cycles arguably prove he is still thinking about River.
His performance has been widely appreciated, and as you watch his Johnny Cash dysfunctionally deal with drugs and closure, you wonder just how much Joaquin is acting.