Plot: A poignant warts-and-all account of the turbulent life of legendary country singer Johnny Cash. Nobody sang the blues better than Johnny Cash which is why this fantastic biopic will make you cry, cry, cry. Rarely does a film live up to it’s hype, but this one happily deserves it’s ring of fire-and the shower of Golden Globes it has already received. And it’s down to breath-takingly powerful performances from Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as the love of his life, June Carter. They play their roles to perfection-even down to the singing. Not called the man in black for nothing, John R Cash’s life was seeped in tragedy which makes for compulsive viewing. It starts conventially at an Arkansas cotton farm in 1944 when a 12-year-old Cash has to deal with the horrific death of his older brother Jack in a sawing machine accident. His dad turns to drink and slurs, ’’The wrong son died, ’’ marking Johnny out for a life-time of feeling inferior. There’s a poignant scene when Johnny first meets June Carter in a diner after a gig and spills his great loss out to her. It’s all more powerful because it is hard to forget that Joaqiun held the body of his older brother River as he died from a drugs overdose outside the Los Angeles Viper Rooms in 1993. As fame beckons for Cash so do the tantalising lures of booze, drugs and women. But married Cash isn’t really interested in the hordes of pretty girls who pursue him, it’s the perky performer June Carter he yearns to woo. June’s a great part for the Legally Blonde star to get talons into. From a God-fearing family of stage performers June underestimates her talents and is guilt-ridden about her divorce from her first husband, singer Carl Smith. Cash, hopelessly hooked on prescription pills and drink, doesn’t seem like the best candidate for husband number 2. But they are drwan together both on stage and in life. The live music scenes are exhilarating as we watch proceedings from backstage. Their love for each other is clear to see as they sing Bob Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe-yet June holds out on him, screeching: ’’Johnny you just don’t know how to walk the line.’’ Without June it is doubtful Cash could have dispelled his demons and gone on to fame. The danger this film faces was being just another biography of a troubled star, but Phoenix lives up to his name and flies so close to the flame you can smell burning.