Nicely Made Biopic With Only A Few Flaws

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2005)

Ray is a well made picture full of great music and fine performances. Jamie Foxx plays the late great singer-songwriter Ray Charles in a bio drama from director Taylor Hackford. As he learns to cope with his blindness, Charles' career was plagued with drugs, discrimination and marital indiscretions, although his wife Della was there to help him through it all. Ray Charles sure is very talented and very interesting so making a biography as a film needed to be handled well. Fortunately, the film turned out to be better then expected. The best thing about Ray is Jamie Foxx as Ray. He gave a really good and moving performance. I used to think he was very average but he certainly proved me wrong. He really did deserve to win that Oscar for best actor. The rest of the cast also gave good performances. Kerry Washington plays Ray's wife and I think she did a fine job. Regina King usually appears in comedies such as Legally Blonde 2 and Daddy Day Care. Her performance in this film though was very good and it really surprised me. She should start picking better roles then appearing in Miss Congeniality 2. Those three really stood out from everyone else but the rest of the supporting cast also gave good performances. Taylor Hackford did a fine job of directing and makes up for making Proof of Life. Ray has all the biopic elements to make this film real and interesting. Ray covers overcoming hard times, drugs, relationship problems and everything else. There are some problems with the film though, like it does have a lot of clichés. The ending was moving and sad but at the same time it was kind of cheesy. The film is kind of sad to watch at times as Ray's life had a lot of tragic moments like when his younger brother dies. The music is great and its really nice to listen too. Its also nice to see how Ray came up with all songs. The running time of 150 minutes goes by pretty fast as the film does a good job of keeping the viewer watching closely and listening closely. While I like Ray a lot, I think that The Aviator is the better film of the two. In the end, this a strong film and its defiantly was worthy of its best picture nomination. Rating 7/10, worth checking out.