Ray

Ray is a biopic about the life of legendary American musician Ray Charles. It portrays the ups and downs of the incredible career of a man who went blind as a child and still retained the ability to play the piano. From the rise of his career to the spiralling of his life as a result of drugs, the film is an emotional ride through the life of a man whose legacy should be more widely known.

Jamie Foxx plays Ray Charles, who starts his life as a blind man trying to play piano in a couple of bars. His abilities attract customers and soon he is quite successful, but is trapped by the owner of the bar. This causes him to leave and sign a record deal, and then enjoy great success across America. His success results in more and more women being interested in him, and the films presents Ray living two different lives: one with his wife and children, and one ‘on the road’ where anything goes. He is introduced to heroine at some point during his success and this begins to take more and more of a toll on his life. As his success increases, so too does his drug use, and he eventually is arrested. This causes him to enter rehab and sort himself out. The film ends with a touching tribute to Ray Charles, which fills in from the end of the film to the end of his life. The film seems to be relatively true to life, embellishing certain aspects for cinematic effect, but on the whole staying true to the more important aspects of Ray’s life.

Jamie Foxx is absolutely incredible in this film. I can’t really put into words just how astounding he is unless you have seen the film. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2005 for this role, and in my opinion he stands alongside Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, and Robert de Niro in Awakenings in terms of the attention and dedication he has for this role. It’s not particularly hard to play a successful black musician, but it is quite hard to act with your eyes closed while you are doing it. It is harder still to completely reflect the mannerisms of another individual, particularly one who has such unique characteristics. Jamie Foxx does this perfectly. After I had watched the film I watched some videos of Ray Charles, and Jamie Foxx conveys the mannerisms nearly perfectly. When you consider that he only had limited exposure to Ray Charles, because he decided that an older man could not help him play a younger man. The emotion that he conveys when he talks to his mother and brother again is one of my favourite bits of the entire film, and I love watching him on screen.

There are a number of other characters in the film who fade into the background compared to Jamie Foxx. The most prominent is Ray’s wife played by Kerry Washington. Her love for Ray is such that she puts up with his life on the road. She is a very good actress and seems to have good on screen chemistry with Jamie Foxx, which can also be seen in Django Unchained. The most impressive supporting performance comes from Regina King who plays Ray’s mistress. The difficulty she has at being second to Ray’s wife is evident throughout, and she does a very good job of showing how difficult this can be. She also marvellously demonstrates how life ‘on the road’ can go sour very quickly. The ensemble that make up Ray’s band are fairly anonymous, but I particularly life Curtis Armstrong, who plays Ahmet Ertegun. He has a very significant role in Ray’s life, and is also very understanding of Ray’s position as a musician. When it comes to him leaving the record label he understands that Ray needs to get the best deal for himself. The supporting cast pale in comparison to Jamie Foxx, but with a biopic of this nature, that is to be expected.

Ray Charles himself was undoubtedly a brilliant man. His influence on music alone was phenomenal, and the music of this film was taken directly from recordings from the man himself. However, Jamie Foxx does a more than impressive job of miming and acting the songs as they are being sung. Personally, and to my shame, I had never even heard of Ray Charles before I was coerced into watching Ray. I was so glad that I did watch it and it opened my eyes (poor choice of words) to the life and career of an incredible man. His influence on the civil rights movement alone stands as an impressive testament to his work. While the film embellishes the fact that he was banned from playing in Georgia, the adoption of his version of ‘Georgia on my Mind’ as the state song is another moving moment in his career.

I would advise everyone who hasn’t seen Ray to get their skates on and watch it. If you know about Ray Charles then it’s a touching tale of his life, and if you haven’t heard of him before then it is a revelation about the existence of a man who changed so much musically and socially, with an uplifting element right at the end.