Review of Ray (2004) by Filipeneto — 24 Jul 2020

I've lived all my life listening to my dad saying that Ray Charles was one of the great musicians of the 20th century, and yet I never had the curiosity to listen to his music. But my father was right: when I decided to see this film, and in order to get to know Ray Charles's better, I try to inform myself about the facts of his life and also listen to some recordings. He's a really great musician.

I think the film does not require any detailed description about the script, which is provided by director Taylor Hackford. Crossing a good part of the singer's life, we followed his meteoric rise and, also, his most troubled moments in life. The film exaggerates a little in its length, but that will not be a major problem. But the fact is that Ray Charles, despite his genius, was an unpleasant, promiscuous drug addicted person. The film shows that, but softens it a lot. I have no doubt that the real Ray, nowadays, would be arrested for possession of drugs or would face several law suits for sexual harassment. This leads us to one of the problems with this film: that we like Ray enough to care about the character. At times, I felt that he deserved the problems he was going through, and that says a lot about how much I cared about him.

Jamie Foxx, however, proved his worth as an actor. Like it or not Ray, he is an excellent actor and was able to perform at the highest level, worthy of the Oscar he came to win. The film also features actresses such as Kerry Washington and Regina King but none of them proved capable of meeting Foxx's overwhelming performance.

The film also has excellent production values: we can particularly mention the elegant and careful cinematography, the post-production and editing work very well done and the enormous quality of the soundtrack, where jazz, gospel and, of course, themes abound. , songs from Ray's repertoire. Being a period film, set in the mid-twentieth century, all the sets and costumes were particularly designed to reflect that time and deserve a positive note for their verisimilitude and historical rigour.