Destined to be Jamie Foxx’s Oscar winning performance as the late, great, Ray Charles, the movie spans a fifty-year career that ended in 2004 (just before the movie was released). Taking on an almost monumental task, “Ray” covers his entire childhood, becoming blind at age seven, his musical growth, fixation with heroin, and never overcoming the drowning of his baby brother at age five. And, Foxx has Ray nailed in character with his singing, head tilting rhythm and piano seduction. Director Terry Hackford (Mr. Helen Mirren) has had a fifteen year relationship developing this story with the real life Ray Charles, which may attribute to his being able to get so close to understanding and representing his lead hero. When biographies often get the facts wrong, this story delivers them right. (could be that real life Charles was given scripts in brail for his approval). That said, the only downside is that the film never takes us to the heart of who the real Ray is. Instead he seems to glide from one decorative vignette to the next moment in his life. The story beautifully dramatizes Ray’s musical influence, rhythm and blues, as well as his marriage to Della Bea Robinson (Kerry Washington) and longtime affair with his backup singer, the spunky Margie Hendricks (an amazing Regina King). A must see in both leaving you feeling proud that a black man could overcome prejudice during that era, as well as becoming a pop culture staple in America’s history.
