Jeff
Shannon says on Amazon that, “Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't
the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved
himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles
in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death
in June 2004.
Despite
a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that
the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner
demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable
job of summarising Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his
weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs
while flying high as a kite.
Foxx
seems to be channelling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of Ritchie
Valens in La Bamba, director Taylor Hackford gets most of the period details
absolutely right as he chronicles Ray's rise from "chitlin circuit"
performer in the early '50s to his much-deserved elevation to legendary status
as one of the all-time great musicians. Foxx expertly lip-syncs to Ray Charles'
classic recordings, but you could swear he's the real deal in a film that honours
Ray Charles without sanitising his once-messy life.”
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