This movie opened today, and I went to see it. It has received an enormous amount of publicity, so I suspect many of you are aware of it—and may be planning to see it. I had seen each of the stars interviewed several times as well as reading 3 or 4 reviews of the movie, so I knew the basic storyline.

But I did not anticipate that it would focus only on the 12-year period before they married—when each of them was married to someone else. June Carter's previous husbands were not portrayed, but Johnny Cash's first wife appeared sporadically throughout the film—and it's heartbreaking for those of us who can identify with what she went through.

So...knowing that many of you get blindsided by movies (even having to get up and leave due to the emotional impact of seeing affairs depicted on the screen)... I felt I should give you a heads-up that this one is likely to generate many strong emotions.

The movie ends with June agreeing to marry him, which was 1968. Both of them died in 2003, so they wound up being married to each other for 35 years. Due to their long union, most people have seen them only as an entertainment couple who managed to sustain a long and loving marriage. (By the way, based on which statistics you believe, studies show that the chances of affair-partners actually marrying each other happens only 1% to 10% of the time; and most of these marriages don't last, so this is an unusual situation.)

This phenomenon is not new: focusing only on the "successful, long-term marriage" rather than the fact that it began with an affair. One of the most dramatic instances is the way so many people hold up the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward marriage as a wonderful example of a Hollywood marriage that has lasted—forgetting (or never knowing) that their relationship began as an affair when they starred in a movie together many years ago.

But back to this current movie... IF you can enjoy the music and the acting (despite the storyline), I must say that the actors do an absolutely amazing job. The music is great, and they actually do their own singing and playing instruments—even though neither of them had ever sung or played an instrument before. (In fact, both actors are likely to receive Academy Award nominations for their performances.) But I want you to be forewarned about the primary nature of the story depicted in this movie.