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Every bit of praise and every award (including the Best Actor Oscar) for Jamie Foxx is justified. Though the soundtrack uses the original recordings dating as far back as the 1953 "Mess Around," Foxx is obviously an accomplished pianist; the actor and his role are like a marriage made in heaven, and this film biography will surely become a classic. The others in the cast that surround him are excellent, with Sharon Warren as his mother, Regina King as Margie Hendricks, and Curtis Armstrong as Ahmet Ertegun among the standouts.
Director Taylor Hackwood blends the flashbacks and nightmares from the past into the thread of the story in a cohesive manner, and one is never lost in the sequences, as can easily happen with that style of storytelling. The flaws in the film would be mainly in some of the stereotypical characterizations, but they fade into the background quickly as the power of Ray the genius and Jamie the actor rivet out attention to the screen. "Ray" also received an Oscar for Best Sound, and nominations for Best Picture, Director, Editing, and Costume Design. The songs include: "Mess Around," "I Got a Woman," "Night Time is the Right Time," "What'd I Say," "Georgia on My Mind," "Hit the Road, Jack," "Unchain My Heart," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Born to Lose," and much more. Total running time is 153 minutes.
The Director (Taylor Hackford) brilliantly uses flash backs to Ray's childhood throughout the film to show how this steely determined, single minded musician developed guided by the hard love of his mother Aretha (Sharon Warren). Ray Charles is a man one admires and respects, but it is difficult to like him, the rough hand life dealt him ensured that; blindness, being cheated and swindled by colleagues in his early years as a musician, his escape into heroin, his continuous adultery, making sure he survived at all costs. Except for his wife and children it was always going to be him not them.
The loneliness of blindness is also brilliantly portrayed, and to a lesser extent the effect of segregation in America at that time.
There is so much more one would like to have seen, I would have loved the film to have been at least an hour longer but that is obviously impractical.
You don't have to be a Ray Charles fan (I am not) to be moved by this superb film.
The director Taylor Hackford was lucky to wait fifteen years for the right actor to come along, but he also shows that he played an important role in the success of this movie. For example, the way in which he presents the different events in the life of Ray - jumping back and forth in time instead of using a linear sequence - helps the viewer understand better the motivations behind most of the artist's actions. Events like losing his brother, losing his sight, being preyed upon by others due to his blindness and meeting people that introduced him to the drug world affected how Ray Charles lived his life. Those that see him as a flawless man will have a tough time watching some of the scenes in this film. But if you understand that he was not perfect, but someone who learned to overcome adversity, you will likely be pleased with the final result.
Those that love the music of Ray Charles are in heaven with this movie, since it has a myriad of music segments (more than ninety), and one of the most amazing facts is that Foxx plays the piano himself in all of them! This is one of the factors that make his performance something special, but it is not the only one. The actor played the role blind; instead of wearing dark glasses and watching what he was doing, his eyes were shut together with silicone all through the day. I think this helped a lot in achieving a more believable performance, and his ability to imitate the way in which others talk helped a lot too. One thing is undisputable: Jamie Foxx received one of the most deserved Academy Awards of the last few years.
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition Widescreen 1.85:1
AUDIO:
DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1
English Audio Description Track 2. Read more
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