Better than average for this genre

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2013)

This is a major biopic of an incredibly gifted and influential musician. It's a film that had to be made and for the most part this is a success. Of course the key was getting the right actor to play the lead and Jaimie Foxx delivers, recreating Charles' distinctive mannerisms perfectly.
The first half of the film is rather slow moving and is a standard rags-to-riches showbiz biopic, telling how the young Charles learns the piano, becomes a nightclub performer and then rises to fame as a major artist, falling in love along the way with the beautiful Della Bea (Kerry Washington).
The second half of the film covers Charles's drug addiction, the problems in his marriage caused by his affair with Margie Hendricks (Regina King) and his battles against racism.
The music is great and the director gives it the prominence it deserves. All Charles' major hits are here and if this film rekindles interest in the man who influenced a generation of musicians, then it serves a useful purpose. If you have no other reason to watch this film, watch it for the music, even if every track is cut to about 30 seconds, except for the one that plays over the end credits.
As a pure film however, it can be hard work at times. There are a lot of clichés regarding (1) his disability, (2) his race and (3) his addiction to heroin. It is overlong – someone really needed to prune this - and contains a lot of gaffes, all listed elsewhere on this site. One of these errors is used to end the film, and to end it awkwardly and abruptly. Considering the investment in this project, many of these aspects are disappointing. But overall this is better than average for this genre and I give it 7.