Excellent, especially Foxx

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2007)

At first, I thought Jamie Foxx was just the best out of an outstanding cast. But it soon became clear that there were going to be four men who were going to lose on Oscar night no matter how good they were. I've seen two of those four so far, and Foxx is definitely the best.
That wasn't Jamie Foxx up there on the screen. That WAS Ray Charles. His smile, his speaking voice, his style of talking, his style of walking, his sense of humor, his passion for singing (even if it was the real Ray's voice, Foxx lip-synched very well), the way he played the piano (or perhaps Foxx only pretended, but if so he faked it very effectively). And Foxx also effectively captured Ray's intelligence and love for his family, though he had a strange way of showing that love. Foxx met one other set of challenges as he gave us the troubled Ray who experienced delusions and eventually endured the horrors of drug addiction.
But Foxx was one of many talented performers in this movie. I want to single out a couple who weren't necessarily the best, but they stood out in my mind. Sharon Warren, as Ray's mother, shows a lot of determination as she strives to make sure that Ray won't end up like her--or once the boy starts going blind, even worse off than she is. It's an amazing thing to watch, especially in the first scene where the boy really seems to be blind. It can't be easy watching your son suffer, but you expect to be rewarded. All we see in the way of satisfaction for her is her pleasure at Ray's first signs of progress, though Ray does have a dream where she and George are alive and he can see, which makes it appear that she was actually proud of how her son turned out.
Another actor who stood out in my mind was the one playing the man who introduced Ray all around the country and even in other countries, in various languages. He just did such a wonderful job. I think the character's name was Joe, so that would be Harry Lennix.
Also, Terrone Bell (as Ray's brother George) seemed like a real five-year-old, not Hollywood's version.
The music was excellent, and not just the performances but everything that happened behind the scenes. And we get to see just why the female vocalist on "Hit the Road, Jack" did such an effective job--if the preceding scene was actually true.
I would have been happier with a straight chronological story rather than flashbacks, but the way Ray's childhood was shown works.
I didn't see any particular weaknesses. There's a lot of unpleasantness, but this was Ray Charles' life and that part has to be shown.
One omission that I found curious: The Ray Charles Singers (various groups put together by Charles Raymond Offenberg) had several hits in the 1960s. When Ray Robinson started calling himself Ray Charles, Offenberg had been using the name for several years, and no one in the movie seemed to know this. And there was not one mention of those other Ray Charles Singers--Ray Robinson's backup group was called the Raelettes.
Normally a three-hour movie (commercials included) is too long. But I wasn't ready for this one to be over.