Wonderful

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2005)

If this movie was shown to a group of people with no idea as to who Ray Charles was they would still enjoy themselves. If even the greatest critic of Charles' music was forced to go along they would simply be in awe of Foxx's mesmerising personification of the legend. To say it is an imitation of Charles would be, at the lowest level, an insult. Jamie Foxx is Ray Charles. Every smile, every note and every breath emotes his spirit. It has been a long time since I have felt empathy for a man who took drugs, cheated on his wife and treated his mistresses like dirt, yet the reason is the music he creates and the fact that both Taylor Hackford and Jamie Foxx show the audience that Ray Charles wasn't that bad a guy. To sum up in two superlatives: Superbly magical.