If you love soul music of the 1950s and '60s, then Ray, director Taylor Hackford's tribute to the life and career of legendary blind musician, Ray Charles, is right up your alley. Nevermind if you've never heard of the latter before, or have never listened to any of his songs; you just can't help being bewitched by his musical genius, (as exemplified in the film) and Jamie Foxx's Oscar winning performance as Charles himself.
I never knew that Foxx had it in him but he captured Charles' cadences of speech, gait, hand gesticulations & other physical eccentricities sooo brilliantly, I almost forgot that it was an actor playing Ray Charles and not Charles himself. If you thought his piano-playing in the musical sequences looked suspiciously real, then you are dead right because it was really him playing the piano(Foxx studied classical piano at the prestigious Juilliard School), even if he was only lip-synching to Ray Charles' vocals. The actresses who portrayed the women in Ray's life were also excellently cast; Kerry Washington (Ray's wife), Regina King (Ray's mistress) and Sharon Warren (Ray's mother) were all similarly strong and poignant characters but each had her own defining (& shining) moments.On the whole, the film's direction and plot are pretty conventional, yet still manage to capture Ray's rise to fame and problems with drugs and women (two commonplace evils of stardom) rather satisfactorily. Whenever the story gets abit befuddled or draggy (especially somewhere near the middle), a dose of Ray Charles' music was enough to rejuvenate one's senses and all the film's (& Ray's)transgressions are forgiven. While Ray as a biopic does not forge any new paths in the history of cinema-making, it is still a wonderful film for its heartfelt and honest storytelling, and Jamie Foxx's breakthrough performance.
my ratings ---- 4.2/5 stars!!!
