Standing out...

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2006)

A good biopic (I'm sure no one responsible for "Ray" wants to say that word) needs to have one and only that important thing to be done: it must honor the person it is making a picture about. Recently, we have seen many biopics; but these three are on a higher level: "Capote" and "Walk the line", which I have written about; and "Ray".
If we think awards, these three films allow the people who made them happen to stand out: "Capote" made director Bennet Miller stand out and gain an Oscar for the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman; "Walk the line" should have given James Mangold a nomination, but gave one to Joaquin Phoenix and gain an award for a perfect Reese Whiterspoon; "Ray" got a nod for Taylor Hackford andWell, you know.
But Ray Charles didn't think awards, and he didn't t think pennies either; he thought dollars. The Oscar for Jamie Foxx was not a gift; he earned it, and what he has done after it is not as remarkable as the career he constructed before. We should give him some time, because his portrayal of the genius is magical that you can clearly see a great actor in himOf course, the fact that he looked like the musician helped him, but the rest was Foxx's work.
Charles had, as every other worldwide famous musician, love problems and a big drug situation. "Don't let nobody turn you into a cripple", his mother told him after his brother died. He went blind at the age of seven, soon after he had played a piano for the first time. He was sent to a school for blind people, and the movie misses the part of when and where he developed his abilities as a pianist; but you don't wonder that about a genius.
Later on he made his own way and got to Seattle to audition alongside Gossie McKee (the always reliable Terrence Howard), who played him; but it was going to be the only time. With a total modesty every time he saw a music he liked, he met Lowell Fulson and went on tour with him. Soon he made a record and started getting some girls: "He touches their wrists to tell if they're pretty", explained Fathead Newman (a notable Bokeem Woodbine).
Until he met Della Bea (a refreshing Kerry Washington) and he makes the viewer think she'll love her and take care of her. However, it's the ups and downs lives of the geniuses; and they can get involved with girls of their choirs called Margie (a fantastic Regina King) and be locked up in jail for drug use or they can put an end to segregation and get a better record deal than Sinatra.
"Boss", everyone started to call him after some time. He was in control, but he was actually loosing control up to the point where he didn't even know who his real friends were and let people like Joe Adams ("Commander in Chief's" Harry Lennix) manage his career. Taylor Hacford illustrates all of this moments passionately with his camera, and James L. White puts them (also passionately) in written.
The cast of "Ray" is more superb than you could think; especially a black man called Clifton Powell, in a performance that should have gotten a lot of more people talking. The rest of the castI don't know why they didn't get the SAG Award (oh, that flawless little cast of "Sideways"); everyone stands out.