Good music, shallow movie

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2005)

I watched Ray yesterday in the theaters (just opened in Israel) and I wasn't impressed at all. Jamie Fox plays Ray Charles perfectly. He looks totally real and since he can play the piano his playing looks real too. The cast is quite good, everybody are playing well and the Music is wonderful. The problem is that the screenplay is horrible, or shall I say standard for such a film. Like in every other biographical movie of such type the hero (Ray Charles in this case) is starting in a small club, then signs a contract, then finds a woman and marries her, then gets into problems with drugs, cheating and the law, and then finds redemption. I refuse to believe that a movie of this genre can't be done differently.
The only thing that I will remember from this movie s one unforgettable scene in which Jamie Fox listens to the song ("mass around") of his little white director and then "takes it on" to what the way we know it today. There were many similar scenes to follow but they seemed rather unoriginal after that one.
So summery: Do I recommend this movie? Well, I don't know... Haven't thought about it. On the one hand the movie sucks and after it you won't know anything new about Ray Charles, on the other hand the music is great. So... no, don't go to this movie. Just get the songs and listen to them until the movie comes out on DVD on the 1st of February, then get it on DVD.