by Matt Parks
Born to humble circumstances in Albany, Georgia in 1930 and blind since the age of six due to glaucoma, Ray Charles defied the obstacles facing a poor, blind African-American growing up in the pre-Civil Rights Movement American South to become an incredibly gifted performer, songwriter, and arranger. Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music, merging the contemporary R&B with gospel. He went on to win 12 Grammy awards and top the R&B chart 11 times with songs such as "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road, Jack," "Doin' the Mess Around," and “Georgia.”
Begun prior to Ray Charles’ death in 2004, and completed with the participation of Charles’ family, ‘Ray’ tells the story of the life and career of the legendary musician.But rather than trying to present a comprehensive reconstruction of Charles’ life, Director Taylor Hackford chooses to focus on Ray the musician, only occasionally dipping into Charles’s childhood for insight into Ray the man.Rather than spending a lot of time attempting to psychoanalyze Charles’ motivations, the telling of Charles’ adult life is largely confined to music, women, and drugs as the formula for both the successes and failures of Charles’ life.
Jamie Foxx gives a surprisingly powerful performance as Charles, his portrayal giving the character complexities and subtleties that likely would not otherwise have been there.The film screenplay does its share of mythologizing, but the power of songs like “What’d I Say” is undiminished by time, and Foxx’s impersonation of Charles at the keyboard is dead-on.Foxx will and should get serious Best Actor consideration for this role.
At times, ‘Ray’ suffers from the difficulties inherent in telling via a visual medium the story of a man who was blind for most of his life.But when it comes to Ray Charles, the music speaks for itself, and ‘Ray’ works best as a sort of long-form music video. Doubtless ‘Ray’ will reawaken interest in the whole catalog of Charles’ work—which over the course of a his long career ranged from rhythm & blues and gospel to soul, jazz, pop, rock and country—reintroducing music fans of all ages to the work ofone of the great American artists of the 20th century, and selling a whole lot of Ray Charles albums (including its own soundtrack, a collection of Charles’ original recordings used in the film) along the way.
