Review of Ray (2004) by Spangle — 12 Mar 2016

A fantastically moving biopic of Ray Charles, Ray is a powerhouse of a film. Jamie Foxx is magnetic as the musical legend and turns in a career-defining performance. Sharon Warren, Kerry Washington, Regina King, and CJ Sanders, are all fantastic as well here, turning in fantastic and authentic performances.

Ray is a film packed to the brim with passion and it truly overflows. The music in the film is infectious and fantastically worked into the film and subtle direction from Taylor Hackford really pays off as he allows the music and the actors to really take center stage in this one.

Ray also expertly handles balancing Charles' youth, rise to fame, stardom, and struggles, with each carrying the required weight and none of the scenes coming as being filler. Rather, they all presented their own set of positives and really combine to be an entirely moving film.

In particular, scenes involving Charles as a boy interacting with his mother got to me the most and were some of the best emotional scenes I have seen in a film in a bit. Overall, Ray is a fantastic biopic that manages to avoid feeling like a generic music biopic by being completely authentic and unwilling to compromise our inside look at Charles' life.

Thanks to good direction, phenomenal acting, and strong writing, Ray is a winner.