Well Acted but Badly Directed

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2005)

Jamie Foxx deserves the plaudits he has been getting for his role as Ray Charles. He does a remarkable job of mimicking Charles' well-known stage mannerisms and convincing depicts the man behind the myth, the part of Ray Charles that few of us knew. He may well receive an Oscar for his performance and it would be deserved. However, the film is over-long and the direction is both flabby and self-indulgent. It leaves the last 30 years of Charles' life to a kind of post-script and I couldn't help thinking that Taylor Hackford had simply run out of film. If he'd had any more, he undoubtedly would have used it. Foxx and the music cover a lot of emptiness. Hard to believe the Hackford is the same man who directed "An Office and a Gentlemen," which -- while not a great film -- was certainly tightly written and tautly directed. Give Foxx a 10 and Hackford a 4, averaging a 7.