Ray shines bright

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2004)

Ray is easily one of the highlights of 2004 and destined to put Jamie Foxx in strong Oscar contention. As a film, it easily ranks with Coal Miner's Daughter and Lenny as a top biography. Foxx had established himself as a major acting talent with his recent Collateral, and now he has cemented his position with an outstanding depiction of singer Ray Charles. Lovingly directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and Gentleman), this episodic and mostly accurate tale covers Ray's youth in Florida at the end of the Second World War through a momentous appearance in the Georgia legislature in 1979.
Ray's childhood was fraught with poverty as his mother struggled to raise him and his younger brother who drowns in a sad incident. Furthermore, he begins to lose his vision and his mother makes him promise to avoid becoming a 'cripple'. Ray's dalliances with women were legendary through marriage and affairs. A humorous motif is his ability to judge a woman's appearance through holding her hand and feeling up her arm. In fact, Ray's abilities to surmount his blindness are noted throughout the film.
Ray Charles was so good at mimicking his contemporaries like Nat King Cole, that he was accused of not being an original until he found his own style or rather 'styles'. Likewise, Foxx (a gifted pianist himself), whose abilities to mimic others (In Living Color), shows a knack for not just imitating Ray's look and mannerisms but by becoming Ray Charles.
It almost seems like you are really watching history in the making and the germination of classic standards such as Hit the Road Jack and Georgia on My Mind. While it is fascinating to watch the development of Ray's styles and the challenges his groundbreaking music posed to his fans and business partners, it is the numerous studio and live performances that are a truly a joy to watch. It is astonishing to see just how important he was to popular American music at a pivotal time in history. Even the appearance of a young Quincy Jones (Larenz Tate) puts things in perspective.
The issue of racial intolerance is surprisingly not shown to be the main focus of his life but serve as events bracketing his youth and his prime when segregated audiences were commonplace in the Deep South. It is noteworthy that his nightmarish visions seemed to stem from his childhood and required that he numb himself from the pain. He is shown to be a man with great talents regarding music and showmanship but with weaknesses when it came to women and heroin. He is also shown to be a man who had strong views of how his life should be and it is a credit to the writers (Hackford and James White) that his was a life of learning and trying to do what was, in hindsight, the right thing. He is a man with whom we laugh and cry.
The film is well produced and very good at evoking the period of time especially the 1950's and early 1960's. There is a very traditional structure in narrative as it follows Ray's desire to live his life of music.
Key flashbacks that are at times bites and brief images are interspersed at relevant moments. The strong supporting cast is hard to pick from. Certainly, Kerry Washington as Ray's wife, Bea, is a standout as well as Regina King as his main squeeze on the road.
Does the film have an episodic feel? Yes, but such a rich and tormented life would be difficult for a movie to give justice and still highlight the great songs, and there are very wonderful songs mostly voiced by the man himself. Charles died this year, but he did give his approval of a rough cut of the final film, warts and all. The timeline ends at the Georgia state legislature in 1979 where Ray's song Georgia on My Mind was named the official state song, a stark counterpoint to the 1960's when he was banned from the state for supporting the desegregation of audiences at his concerts. It is an ending that seems a bit abrupt for a man whose gift and legacy are human yet rich.