The needle and the damage done

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2005)

The first thing to say is that Jamie Foxx certainly did give a Oscar-winning performance, and I really did think it was Ray Charles sitting at the piano at times. And Jamie had the mannerisms of Ray down pat, especially the walk.
There's no doubt that Ray Charles was a musical innovator, with mastery over several musical styles. The songs in the movie were great too, although perhaps they were cut a little too short at times. And there were too many flashbacks for my liking, which fragmented the film. I really do wonder what the film would have been like if the scenes had been sequenced chronologically; surely the continuity could have contributed to a better movie.
I enjoyed seeing, but was quite frankly distracted by, the superb automobiles from the 1950s and 1960s, all looking shiny and new. And I cringed when one got a brick through its windscreen.
Overall, I was not quite as inspired by the Ray Charles story as I thought I would be. I guess this was mainly to do with the way Ray's substance abuse adversely affected the middle part of his life and that of his family.