The Moose Hole - Review of Ray

Rating: 8/10 (30 October 2004)

It was tremendously heart-breaking for America to have lost not only one, but two cultural icons that had had profound impacts on the people of our nation  Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles  die within a week of each other. Unfortunately, Ray Charles' sudden passing, which occurred on June 10th, was slightly over-shadowed by the funeral processions of the late-president, but he was hardly forgotten, nor will he ever be thanks to the landmark impact he left, not only on his own, but on the current generation of artists as well. There are certainly substantial arguments over the current direction that many believe the music industry is heading toward at this moment in time but what can be said, together, is that Ray Charles will be forever remembered for leaving an influential mark on the music industry and broke barriers in order for the current generation of supposedly 'musically inclined' teen-poppers to express their own voice in the world today.
The story charts the life and career of the pioneering musical sensation Ray Charles, who passed away this past summer at the age of seventy-four after primary production had been completed on the biography. Born in a poor black neighborhood of Albany, Georgia in 1930, Ray Charles Robinson never imagined the extraordinary life he would lead, but it wouldn't come easy for either him or his family and not without heavy costs in return. After the accidental death of his younger brother, Ray began to go blind starting at the age of seven and his mother, a fiercely independent and strong black woman, helped him develop his other abilities in order to better adapt to his changing environment. Ray's true gift lied with his ability to take ordinary gospel and jazz music and turn it into something spectacular, as was demonstrated by the unprecedented number of his hits he obtained in an astounding number of genres, practically unthinkable for a musician in his day. Despite marrying a beautiful former singer and having two children as well as all the wealth and fame he could have ever imagined, Ray Charles for years battled with his inner demons, including his excessive womanizing while on the road and his growing heroin addiction, as well as the psychotic side effects that haunted him for years and nearly ended the long standing career he had fought so hard for. The story for Ray should be commemorated for doing what so few bio-pictures have actually done, which is to tell the whole story, including the good times, the bad, and the down-right ugly, and unfortunately the latter may be the reason the feature's rating gets knocked down a few notches in the end. It's important that Ray Charles' incessant heroin addiction and womanizing are the primary focus of the film, as they were the demons that consumed a large portion of his life and career, but after about two hours it becomes a little depressing. This is hardly a call-to-arms for the 'hippie-dippy' view of Mr. Charles' life story but it would have been nice had some time been set aside to look at the events of his life ranging from the mid-1970s to the time of his death in the summer of 2004.
As is so often the case with biographical features, don't be expecting a star-studded cast  the primary focus is, and always should be, the story's main component and nothing should distract from that, which remains true for this one as well. Let's end the discussion here and now. The votes have already been tallied up  Forget those damn recounts, honestly if people don't know how to properly fill out an election ballot in this day and age then they deserve what-ever they get  The winner for Best Actor at this year's Academy Awards will be Jamie Foxx. To be true, Foxx was cheated out of a golden-statuette for his role in the critically-acclaimed comedy Booty Call but with this one practically in the bag, all is forgiven to be sure. Seriously, Jamie Foxx gives the performance of a life-time as the legendary Ray Charles and, considering he spent numerous hours with the man himself prior to his death, nothing he does in the film seems off-key or out of place. This is one of those rare occasions in the history of cinema where witnessing a film is called for principally for the sake of one actor's astonishing performance and Foxx's take on the late-Ray Charles is it. One can picture Kerry Washington's Della Bea Robinson, the wife of Ray Charles, in comparison to Jacqueline Kennedy, another spouse of a famous figure of American culture whose 'dabbling' in the areas of drugs and women severely affected life back home. She works well with the limited screen time she's given but one has to remember that the primary focus should be on Ray specifically, so it was expected that less time would be spent on the supporting characters. And Sharon Warren, who is an apparent newcomer to the Hollywood scene according to IMDb, does an incredible job with the role of Ray's fiercely independent mother, Aretha Robinson, and reflects perfectly a woman struggling to go through life in a world she is well aware is far from fair, having her youngest son unexpectedly taken away from her and raising a blind child alone in a poor southern neighborhood. She quickly adapts her experience in life and embeds them in the young Ray in order to prevent others from treating him merely as a cripple. Unfortunately what Ray forgets along the way is that it isn't others he should be concerned about treating him as anything other then a blind-black man, it should be himself as well.
Overall, Ray, in the same captivating way as the inspirational artist on which it is based, breaks away from the conventional norms, too often tied down by an over-burdening sense of political correctness, and drastically alters the way we look at the biography genre. As instrumental as the feature may be, it does have its fair share of problems that hinder it enough to prevent a spectacular rating from being given to it. First off, an annoying aspect of the feature was Hackford's constant use of flashbacks to Ray's early childhood in Albany, Georgia during the middle of several scenes throughout the movie. It would have been better had Hackford played the story of Ray Charles straight-up instead of having to resort to using ridiculous, and repeatedly awkward, flashbacks that frequently distract the audience from the current conflicts as hand. With a running time of slightly over two hours and thirty minutes, director Taylor Hackford seems to be biting off more then he can chew and gives the audience the feeling as though he is cramming too much into one film. The flow of the film may have been better had he given the thought of chopping a few unnecessary sequences in order to shorten it up a bit. And finally, the less then spectacular finale to the musical biography leaves something desperately to be desired. Giving benefit to the doubt due to the fact that Ray Charles died shortly after primary shooting had been completed on the film, the filmmakers may have been confused as to how to properly end the feature now that he had passed away. It doesn't give them a total free-pass for ending it as flatly as they did but it is, at the very least, understandable. There are, ultimately, two distinct factors that should convince you to see this film  its rocking soundtrack and the astonishing performance of comedian Jamie Foxx. The soundtrack, though, should be disqualified since anyone can just as easily purchase it either on a compact disc or download it offline (a free version was available on AOL Music at the time of this publishing) but Foxx's breakthrough performance is unlike anything seen in years and should be seen for yourself to be thoroughly convinced. Despite some minor squabbles with particular methods used by the filmmakers, it is to be sure that Ray Charles is looking down on this film at this moment and giving it, as well as the talented cast and crew who worked diligently to make this as truthful and entertaining as possible, his blessing.
My Rating: **** out of 5 (Grade: B+)