Ray Charles lived a Technicolor existence of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, which translates cinematically in Ray. This poignant biopic of the famed musician does not resort to glossing over all his hardships, but rather presents a warts and all portrayal of the man. All his glories and failures play soulfully courtesy of a stellar performance by Jamie Foxx as the legend.
Ray takes us from his dirt poor childhood in Florida up through the 1970’s. With the use of flashbacks we see the tragic familial circumstances that haunt Charles throughout his life. We learn how his sharecropping mother used tough love to help teach her son not to let his handicap cripple him, but rather train himself to be strong because the cruel world does not take pity on the blind.
The journey of the music and the man go hand in hand. The struggles made the music and vice versa. With the monetary rewards that accompany celebrity many problems may arise. Ray lived almost two separate lives that overlapped somewhere in the middle, as someone who wanted to be a family man and love his wife, while being a drug addict and serial womanizer. Ray could be kind and generous or mean spirited and selfish. It all depended on the life he was living as he was addicted to drugs. Apart from his constant personal turmoil, some self inflicted, it was sad to see how early in his career people would try and swindle him because he was blind. However these experiences only made him more cautious and smarter as a businessman.
The movie rests on the believability of Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. If he gets it just right he blends in. You feel that Ray and not some actor is performing on the screen before you. Foxx is splendid not only capturing Charles’ physical mannerisms from his sway at the piano to his walk, but also his soulful voice. Assuming that the story of the film is true to character then he also caught Charles’ moods from sweetheart to scoundrel. (Ray Charles approved the casting of Foxx and the script. Foxx is classically trained in the piano.) It should not be understated how charming and sexually appealing Ray was and Foxx exudes that. Plus he is playing a blind man encompassing all that strenuous lifestyle entails. For these reasons Foxx is garnering Oscar buzz and it is well deserved. He continues to work on projects worthy of his dramatic acting talent such as Ali, a flawed biopic, and more recently Collateral, proving that comedians have a range that does not always extend to the more classically trained actors. The rest of the supporting cast is solid with notable performances by Kerry Washington (Ray’s wife Della Bee), Regina King (mistress Margie), Bokeem Woodbine (band mate Fathead), and Curtis Armstrong as Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records fame.
This is not a movie about feeling sad for a blind man. It’s about understanding ...
