An Excellent Performance from Jamie Foxx

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2005)

The best thing about Ray is the performance of Jamie Foxx. His portrayal of Ray Charles is fantastic to the point where you'll most likely believe Ray Charles is actually acting his own life out.
However, I felt the film had several problems. There didn't seem to be any sort of flow to the film. It felt like a disjointed mess where there would be no real progression from scene to scene. It tended to feel like nothing major was happening.
When a pivotal scene did come, it was often tainted by your typical, sappy, Hollywood music which really did take so much away from the moment.
*SPOILERS*
For example: The scene when Ray's little brother dies is such a horrific and emotional moment. But I felt like this was interrupted by some crappy music attempting to tell me how to feel. Such huge and pivotal scenes in a movie about a legendary musician do not need an accompanying musical score, much less a clichéd one.
There were also several important scenes involving Ray and his wife which also seemed to be tarnished by the same music.
*END SPOILERS*
In summary, the screenplay was very poor. It seemed to lack structure, and progression severely hurting the pace of the film, which seemed too long and riddled with clichés.
But, Jamie Foxx's performance deserves an Oscar.