Strictly by the numbers

Rating: 2/10 (8 May 2016)

An uninspired, standard biopic that follows a familiar arc featuring poverty, fame and drug addiction, Ray tells us less about the man, and more about Hollywood formulas applied to music legends. Jamie Fox's Oscar winning impersonation of Ray Charles is excellent, but the character is one-dimensional and Fox's performance is all surface. The film features so many of Ray's songs that it feels like a jukebox musical. The film itself is undistinguished and overlong with a secondhand feel thanks to Taylor Hackford's strictly by the numbers direction and a screenplay that refuses to part with a single cliché. An A&E Biography would have been better and more authentic.