2004,
biography,
clifton powell,
curtis armstrong,
jamie foxx,
kerry washington,
oscar,
ray charles,
regina king,
richard schiff,
sharon warren,
taylor hackford
I really, really enjoyed this - far more than I expected to. Jamie Foxx gives an amazing performance as Ray Charles - you very quickly forget that it isn't the man himself. And some very strong performances by the supporting cast. And a lovely snapshot of its time.
when it was over, I found myself with one particular song from it running through my head - You Don't Know Me. But it wasn't his version ... It took a while to identify it, but eventually I sussed that it was Meryl Streep, from Postcards From the Edge, another very fine film which I must watch again shortly.
Amazon editorial review Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about
Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of Ritchie Valens in
La Bamba, director Taylor Hackford gets most of the period details absolutely right as he chronicles Ray's rise from "chitlin circuit" performer in the early '50s to his much-deserved elevation to legendary status as one of the all-time great musicians. Foxx expertly lip-syncs to Ray Charles' classic recordings, but you could swear he's the real deal in a film that honors Ray Charles without sanitizing his once-messy life.
--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
