As the film progresses, we get looks back at Ray’s early childhood in the rural south. ![]() Sex and drugs aren’t his first problem though. Unfortunately, along the way he starts using heroin and cheats on his wife while he’s on the road. He leaves to play somewhere else, but this keeps happening until he establishes himself. Everyone feels like because of his blindness he needs to be looked after, taken care of, babysat. He has a nice start there as part of a trio, but quickly realizes that he’s treated like a dog on a leash. We first meet him as a young man on his way to Seattle to play in a little jazz joint called The Rocking Chair. This movie biopic about Ray Charles takes place way before the days of The Blues Brothers. Maybe kids just don’t notice those sort of things when someone doesn’t seem handicapped. I don’t remember, but my dad might have had to tell me he was blind before I realized it. As a kid, I don’t think my first thought was concerning Ray’s blindness, bur rather how he played with such enthusiasm and could really move to the music just sitting behind a keyboard. White and Hackford try to link the drugs to guilt over his brother’s death and the stress of his handicap but are not persuasive in either case.The first image I remember of Ray Charles is probably that scene in The Blues Brothers where he plays Shake a Tail Feather. The film spends probably too much time dwelling on this battle. He gets hooked on heroin, a habit he carries for years before he kicks it. The highlights of his personal life are equally dramatized - witnessing the drowning death of his brother at age 5 losing his sight by age 7 his early, lonely days on the road the marriage to his devoted wife, Della Bea (Kerry Washington) and his romantic involvement with female singers on the road. He then moves into rock and later country, and with each move the film in a scene or two nicely conveys the full impact these shifts had on the music scene. He merges R&B with gospel - a sacrilege to some folks - and achieves a musical breakthrough. ![]() ![]() But once he finds his own voice - much deeper and funkier - Ray experiments. He begins by imitating the style of popular recording artists such as Nat King Cole and Charles Brown. As a youth, Ray soaks up gospel, jazz and country. The very best thing about Ray is how it dramatizes Ray’s musical influences, the changes in his style and audience reaction to these developments. Possibly filmmaker Taylor Hackford, who spent 15 years developing the story with the singer-songwriter, got too close to his subject. It goes deep into a life filled with as much trouble and pain as triumph and accomplishment but never quite gets at the root of who Ray is. Yet unlike his songs, the film holds something back. Same with this film: You’re into it right away. The first time you hear a Charles recording, you can’t help digging the sounds and the stories he tells in those songs. It succeeds more often than it doesn’t, and thanks to a kinetic, mesmerizing performance by Jamie Foxx in the title role, the film has immediate accessibility to millions of Charles fans the world over. Ray takes on a monumental task - capturing the entire career arc of one of America’s greatest artists, music legend Ray Charles. The Hollywood Reporter ‘s original review is below. ![]() The film earned six nominations at the 77th Academy Awards, winning in the sound mixing category as well as the best actor category for Jamie Foxx’s performance. 29, 2004, Universal unveiled Ray Charles biopic Ray in theaters, where it would go on to gross $124 million globally.
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