How This Bioflic differs from, say, B.B. King's

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2005)

Musician is an adulterer and a heroin user. So why is this formulaic theme for a movie an Oscar contender for both best picture and best performance by an actor? Because this 15 year effort used ingenious effects to show how the death of Ray's little brother haunted him all these years. I have never really understood the connection between Ray and the death of his little brother (and we may never know why he stood there, nor may he). But the haunting nightmares he experienced while walking around in his blindness would drive anyone to drink or drugs.
The acting by Jamie Foxx, a comedian??? Superior, especially as he wore prosthetics to genuinely make him blind while he was acting. I was grateful that no Hollywood treatment was allowed of the genius Ray Charles. We saw him, warts and all. Foxx did a superior performance of the perpetual psychic pain this guy was in for most of his life. Another picture that would be great to make is the effect of Ray Charles on the lives of all 12 of his children, including and especially those he fathered out of wedlock (Margie's child).
If Foxx DOESN'T win the Oscar, we'll know the indifference to black actors in Hollywood is real. I'm sure he drew on his own pain in not having his own father ever come to see his football games, where he broke records as a quarterback at his high school....and all the emotional neglect that represents. His ability to play the piano, to sing like Ray Charles in his early years, and to lip synch when Charles' voice is used was magnificent.
The DVD is well worth the price, as you have the Director explaining all the various scenes, and why certain gestures were used. One thing still worries me: Why is Charles walk shown so exaggerated, especially as he walks away from his wife-to-be? Blind folks don't usually walk like that, maybe a little bit too exaggerated. But that's the ONLY minor flaw I can find with this picture. The bright red of the North Florida clay roads is REAL, as one of my own childhood memories is the red clay dirt of southern Georgia. The director says that he deliberately highly colored his early life, since that's when Charles could see.
Having had an adulterer as a husband, I know the pain that both the wife and Margie show. They both loved him, and those actresses portray it well: Margie singing "Hit the Road, Jack" with all her fury showing toward Ray was fantastic. Don't just see this movie, BUY it.