Great performances and music squandered in mediocre story

Rating: 6/10 (2 December 2004)

At its heart, 'Ray' is a great story stuck in a mediocre film. There is undeniable power on screen, and an interesting tale of personal struggle and worldwide triumph resonating in every frame, but the film is so jumpy and driven by set pieces that it unfortunately never comes together in the end.
Ray Charles Robinson (Jamie Foxx) has a lot going against him when he first arrives in Seattle to play at a seedy dive in the late 1940s. A blind, black piano player from Florida, he encounters adversity wherever he goes. His manager shortchanges him, other people refuse to hang out with him because of his handicap, and he has to constantly be aware of his surroundings.
But his music grabs people. He feels the beat every time he sits at the piano, and the house always comes alive, no matter what the size of the venue. Working his way out of juke joints and onto a tour, Ray is advised to drop his last name and just go by Ray Charles, and soon his star rises. But he isn't happy.
Haunted by the memories of watching his younger brother drown when he was still a child, he soon turns to drugs to escape his feelings of guilt. Discovered by Atlantic Records producers Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong) and Jerry Wexler (Richard Schiff), Charles soon is given the freedom to write his own music and a phenomenon is born. Mixing Gospel style (but not the Gospel attitude he jokes) with R&B, his place in history is soon set.
Along the way, he marries Houston singer Della Beatrice Howard (Kerry Washington) who catches his fancy. But she alone can't satisfy him. Time away on the road and the temptations of showbiz overwhelm Charles, and he's soon keeping a lover in tow. Back up singer Margie Hendricks (Regina King) plays his most troublesome other woman, putting up a façade of business only while singing to hits like 'Hit the Road, Jack' but trying to manipulate him behind the scenes.
We get the sense in 'Ray' that Charles was a talented performer who was hampered by his own feelings of inadequacy, and the film is wise to show the quieter, more reflective moments of his life. But we mostly discover that his take no prisoners style of business and recording practices was a direct result of his mother, who taught him from an early age never to let his disability to him into a cripple.
Foxx doesn't just play Charles; he embodies the man in every way. He brings the musician to life in a way that is neither synthetic nor a caricature. Charles lives on screen through Foxx, who has made quite a transition from goofy skits on 'In Living Color' to a powerful dramatic actor over the course of the last few years.
Other performances range from mediocre to adequate, but King manages to bring life into her role. She's not unsympathetic as the woman who wants to be more than Charles' sex interest when he's away from home. And as Charles' first producers, Armstrong and Schiff manage to make a slight impression, although their roles in the film are rarely more than just ancillary and then forgotten once Charles moves on to bigger fish.
But 'Ray' never quite captures the right tone. It wants to be all things; a music biopic, a study of struggle and a life affirming treatise, and does all of them half-hearted. We never learn of Charles' first wife Elieen, and his frequent acts of adultery are just simplified into two women. The music is the movie's real saving grace, but that probably owes more to the myth of Charles then the testament to him here. What remains is a fascinating but flawed look at a man who himself was fascinating but flawed, and stands as a nice elegy to the life of the late, great performer.
6 out of 10 stars. The actors and music make it worth watching, but the story's so jumpy it feel like a rhapsody, not a melody.