Ray (Movie Review)

Jamie Foxx plays R&B/soul legend Ray Charles in this movie about the early years of his career. We follow Charles as he progresses from playing piano in smoky, rundown bars to performing center stage at some of the largest venues in the country. No stone is left unturned as the audience sees Charles’s shortcomings (heroin addiction and philanderer) as well as his strengths (he refused to play in his home state of Georgia due to the segregation of clubs that booked him). We see that he was a savvy businessman in that he requested, and received, the rights to his own music. Through a series of flashbacks the audience is shown the cause of his blindness, the influential strength of his mother and the drowning death of his brother that haunted him his entire life.

This movie is a good biographical depiction of Ray Charles’s life. Jamie Foxx gives an incredible performance that at times makes you feel like you are watching an A & E Biography instead of an actor playing a role. Is this really the same guy from "In Living Color"? At times the movie seems to drag, but the music is really great. If only they had covered the making of that Diet Pepsi commercial he used to be in, then the movie would have been complete. "You got the right one baby, Uh-huh!" Anyway, check it out at your local 2nd run theater or when it comes to DVD.