Mixed feelings

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2005)

That "Ray" would lead to mixed feelings was something that i had gathered from reviews as well as comments from other viewers. And i think the term "mixed feelings" sums this movie up pretty well indeed.
Let's start with the acting. Jamie Foxx received an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles. After seeing the movie i must say that the Oscar felt justified. Foxx performs very well and is very believable as well as emotional in his part. Well-deserved. The rest of the cast perform rather well too, especially Sharon Warren as Ray's mother. So far so good. So what about the portrayal of Ray? I would have to say it's surprisingly candid. Often when movies are made about legends like Ray Charles they don't turn into biographies as much as idolization. Here the film-makers avoid that. They spend a lot of time showing that Ray Charles was not only a musical genius but also a heroin-addict and a womanizer. The fact that they didn't only show the rosy parts added to the experience.
I spoke in the beginning about mixed feelings. So far i've only really told you about what i appreciated. Well, there are also problems in this movie. Especially when it comes to pace and story. It feels sometimes like the movie is moving on very fast while still managing to be slow. Especially the first half is quite a test of one's stamina. But the slow pace was not what i found most annoying. Rather it was the constant and rather misplaced use of flashbacks all through the movie. Flashbacks is a thing usually left to B-movies and in my opinion that's where it should stay. Here flashbacks are used as a way of showing Ray's torment with some of his childhood experiences, but it's just too much. Many of the flashbacks are a little over the top as well.
So a mixed feeling it is. The film-makers manage to get what feels like both sides of the person Ray Charles, they also manage to find the perfect actor for the job. However they mistreat the story and tell it in a way that makes it unnecessarily slow. And somewhere along the line it seems they realized that it was going to be slow, so they added a couple of dramatic flashbacks here and there. In the end though this is a decent biography of a brilliant musician. And the movie does contain a lot of great music as well. I rate it 6/10.