Entirely driven by Foxx's stunning performance

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2005)

Jamie Foxx has never ceased to astound us this year. First, a surprisingly powerful supporting performance as Max the cabbie in Michael Mann's Collateral, easily holding his own against Tom Cruise and drawing strong support from us as the film's protagonist. Already there was Oscar talk. But now, Jamie Foxx's potential seems to have been fully unchained with his staggeringly perfect (and I don't use the word lightly) performance as Ray Charles Robinson, one of the world's most famous R 'n B singer and pianists.
Never once do we question whether Foxx is creating a decent portrait of Charles or not - for the entire duration of the film, he quite literally 'is' Ray. Never once does he slip up, or falter to hold up his uncanny depiction - we see him play piano as Ray; dancing around in his seat and hugging himself afterwards included, we see him walk as Ray, and I think it's safe to say that a depiction of blind movement has never been so lifelike. (although in all fairness, Jamie Foxx wore prosthetics in his eyes while shooting, which essentially rendered him blind, so it wasn't that much of a stretch for him) We see him as Ray go through a hidden heroin addiction, and a devastating withdrawal. We see Ray as he struggles with trying to balance his belief in a stable family where the father loves and provides for his wife and children and his infidelities on the road performing. We fully get the sense that throughout all his fame and fortune, Ray Charles never really knew who he was, until he finally found the courage to face himself and find out. We quite literally get the sensation of living life alongside Ray Charles, and all the ups and downs included.
Director Taylor Hackford skillfully blends flashbacks with present, while flashing newspaper headlines and articles throughout Ray's musical journey, which serve to fill most of the plot gaps and jumps that pop up ever once and a while throughout the film. Rightfully so, he knows that the story revolves around Ray, so he, in turn, lets the film revolve around Foxx and his stunning performance, which was definitely the wise thing to do. Foxx is almost never offscreen, which is good, because it's his talent that keeps us interested in what would otherwise be a rather slow moving and occasionally uneven film. But it does indeed give us a painstakingly accurate, if somewhat condensed, sense of the life of Ray Charles: all his ups and downs, triumphs and failures, happiness and sorrow. And with Foxx's uncanny performance driving the film, the occasional plot slip up can easily be overlooked, ending up with a very satisfying film.
-8.5/10