Ray (Widescreen Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Ray (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Ray: the movie, the legacy...
Summary: 5 Stars
"Hit the road, Jack! And dontcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more! Hit the road, Jack! And dontcha came back no more."
Funny that no one would dare say such a line toward to a guy like Ray Charles.
~REVIEW~
Who WAS Ray Charles? What are the songs he produced? What's his profile? The only thing I knew about him is that he invented a new kind of music, and that he was an inspiration to many music artists everywhere. However, with this movie that came out, those questions should be easily explained in cinema. Not only does this movie explained the history, but it does it in soulful and energetic way that's gonna rock the Apollo theater. The movie name says it all, and says it with respect..."Ray."
Biography movies are synonymous in the movie industry, and almost each keep following the same chronologically approach that makes it seem effective: Tina Turner, Selena, Nixon, and Ed Wood, the movies that were about these people's lives follow the same device. "Ray" fortunately goes on a different direction, in that this movie isn't about the life and death of Ray Charles Robinson, but about how he became a huge success during all that turmoil. From the early 50s to late 70s, he goes from working at a lowbrow bar in the South (the bar that also had WILLOW!), to having recording deals from Atlantic and ABC, to being banned from Georgia for not playing in a segregated theater. During these events, along with other events that happened, he was crippling his life on weed and syringes, before he was arrested.
"Ray" is great with its effective use of time-shifting. Whenever there's a certain scene that plays an integral role, it shifts back to a past scenario when Ray was just young child living with a single ma' in a poverty area in Florida. Each past scenario covers the inspirations on his life, and also, unfortunately for him, his tragedies, but all are just captivating to watch. In one past scenario, Ray was just blind and when fell down in the house, he cried for his mother's help, while his mother was standing right in front of him 6 feet away, doing nothing. From then, he started to rely on his other senses, and he got up, and experimented the sound and touch, listening to the noise of a cricket and feeling the things surrounding him. He noticed mom from the sound of her weeping, crying because he had a special gift. The scene was so touching, I had trouble bottling in my emotions. The past tragedies kept robbing him out of his sanity in this movie's present and it was these devastating memories that led him to experiment drugs, damaging him in mind and body.
On the plus side, Ray is a interesting and funny fellow. He has his way of getting attention and getting the respect he deserves. It's funny how he also has his way with the ladies...let's just say it's all in the wrist (literally). What a heartthrob. Improvisation is Ray's special niche, because when he gets into a bad situation or got a problem with someone, he just turns these annoyances into song, and he made a lot of great hits improvising. Ray taught me a good lesson: it doesn't matter if you're blind, you're no different from the others; you're either act positive or act negative. With Ray, this movie show him not as a blind guy with talent, but a guy with talent.
For some reason, Jamie Foxx is having his best year. He kicked A when he's in "Collateral", and here, he's wonderful portraying as the recently-departed Ray Charles. I'm surprised how a comedian like him can do so well when transitioned into drama. He capture the stature and functionally of the icon so tightly, and he's very involved within the character's role. Another funny thing I realized is that after watching the credits, it list some of the Ray Charles songs in which Foxx actually sang, written by the man himself. Who knew Foxx had the soul of a singer in him? While I can remember their names, the remaining cast were all great too. Like every biography of its type, "Ray" includes the original songs, and Ray Charles's songs, such as "What`d I Say" and "Hit the Road Jack", really brought in some validity to this film.
THE FINAL WORD: Astonishing. I first had no interest in "Ray" since it's already been critically-acclaimed and I thought this wouldn't really leave me much of what's already been criticized. My god, how come I didn't see this sooner? Other than a few editing mistakes "Ray" was a flaw-less true-story movie: it was funny, it left me in tears, it was full of character and optimism. This is possibly the best film I've seen in 2004, and I hope this movie deserves an Oscar nomination; it's also one of those rare black drama cinemas that actually make me feel good instead of feeling depressed. If the inventor of soul was alive right now, he probably would've been amazed by this tribute.
You did good, Jack. You did good.
Movie Review: Ray Charles - A Musical Genius with Deep Scars...
Summary: 5 Stars
An individual is the result of all experiences - good and bad. The experiences comprise of the knowledge learned through others, which brings about a change within the person. This change affects the person's morals, beliefs, and values, and as the person ventures through life there will be numerous characters with some input to the person. However, usually there are a few strong characters that stick out in a person's mind when it comes to those who enlightened them on their path through life. Ray Charles Robinson had several, but one sticks out more than others - his mother.
Ray Charles had several interesting experiences and the audience is to visually experience a number of them through the wonderful performance of Jamie Foxx. The story begins with how Ray travels across America by Greyhound while facing prejudice not only to his skin color, but also in regards to his blindness. Through Ray's experiences the film uses flashbacks to where he learned how to handle several of the situations, as his mother urged him to not accept the pity of others. Instead his mother taught him how to stand on his own two feet, and how to be righteous person with good morals.
The moments when Ray recollects his past and his mother's advice are initially happy with memories of his brother and his mom despite their poverty. However, these memories slowly turn into a darkness and internal turmoil, as Ray begins to hallucinate about water and wet floors. This unhappy memory seems to torment Ray in ways that handicaps him from function like a normal human being. Through his first job as a pianist for a small group he is introduced to pot, which helps him self-medicate his personal issues. Pot ends up being the key to Pandora's box, as he eventually moves to heavier drugs to deal with his painful memory that seem to burden him beyond reason.
Eventually Ray meets Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong) from Atlantic Records, and he is intrigued by Ray's musical skills, and offers him to stop thinking about pennies, and instead focus on making dollars. Through Ray's partnership with Atlantic Records he is encouraged to develop his own sound, but it is difficult for him, as he has always played what others desired. After a radio interview in Huston, Texas, Ray meets with Della Bea (Kerry Washington) who he ends up marrying, but she also encourages him to be himself in regards to everything. This leads to Ray toward making his own first hit, "I Got a Woman", which brings out Ray's new and personal sound through a fusion of gospel and rhythm & blues. The music is an essential portion of the film; as it brings light and color into hearing Ray's way of perceiving the world.
Through hit songs with new sounds such as "Georgia on My Mind", "Hit the Road Jack", and "Unchain My Heart" among many others Ray Charles' popularity grew. However, the songs became a tool for him to exorcise his own demons that haunted him through the many experiences that he had acquired while being on the road. Being on the road meant illicit drugs, numerous women, and overwhelming guilt, as he felt ashamed cheating on his wife. Together the guilt and his self-medicated heroin addiction grew stronger while he developed drug jitters and other drug related behaviors. The combined affect of his personal life, drug addiction, and the past memories kept haunting him as he could recall the death of his younger brother for which he still felt tremendous guilt. The world began to close in on him, as the law enforcement was arresting him for drug possession, and his wife was about to leave him while noticing that his musical career were slipping out of his hands. With the many experiences that Ray had he still reflected over what his mother once taught him, and trusted her life lessons to guide him on the right path.
Ray is a poignant film by Taylor Hackford who made films such as The Devil's Advocate (1997) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Hackford brings a very authentic feel to the many places that Ray Charles played though the use of good mise-en-scene, an excellent cast, and vivid cinematography. In addition, the jumps between hallucinations, flashbacks, and reality offer the audience a genuine sense of how Ray must have felt, but this is also enhanced by Jamie Foxx's outstanding performance. The flashbacks, too, are colorful, which accentuates the importance of his childhood, and especially his mother, but it also flashes some light on how important those moments before blindness might have been. The flashbacks are also drenched in emotional substance, which the audience gets to experience through Ray in his dark world. Ultimately, Ray offers the audience a brilliant cinematic experience that should be reflected upon with closed eyes while pondering on our own experiences and those who have affected our life choices.
Movie Review: Jamie Foxx channels the late, great Ray Charles
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards I was thinking that Jamie Foxx is going to win the Best Actor Oscar for "Ray" because everybody is going to want to hear him do another acceptance speech (he has to be saving the best for last). Of course, after watching "Ray" it becomes obvious the members of the Academy have an even better reason for honoring the performance, even if Foxx is not having a year in which his career has reached the high water mark with another Oscar nomination for his "Supporting Role" in "Collateral and his SAG nomination for his performance in "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story" on television. True, Foxx does not do his own singing in "Ray," but he does play the piano and why would you want to hear anybody other than Ray Charles sing? In 20th century American popular music in terms of signers there is Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles. I keep trying to come up with one more for the thumb, but Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan are more songwriters than singers and everybody else you can name as singers are just not in that league.
The film by director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter James L. White basically tells the story of how Ray Charles came to two pivotal moments in his life. The first is when he took the emerging sound of Rhythm & Blues and added gospel powered vocals to basically create soul music when "I Got a Woman" was released in 1955. Everything he sings before that point is pretty good, such as "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand," but it is not great and it all sounds more like Nat "King" Cole or Charles Brown that the authentic Ray Charles. So the first part of the movie has to do with Ray Charles finding his voice. The rest of "Ray" is the load road to the second pivotal point, where Charles kicks his heroin habit.
Except for a choice moment of person redemption from the Georgia State Legislature, the story of Ray Charles is over at that point. We can then turn from the DVD to CDs of Ray Charles singing all of the songs we heard him sing in the movie from "Night Time is the Right Time" (a.k.a. the number from "The Cosby Show" for the younger generations) and "What I'd Say" to "Georgia" and "Hit the Road Jack." But the great irony is that after Charles kicked his drug habit he was never as great. He was still very, very good, making any song he sang his own, as when he covered "Yesterday," "Eleanor Rigby," "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma," "Living for the City" and "America." But the creative fire was gone. That is why this film ends where it does. You would not say that the career of Ray Charles was ever in descent, but clearly the glory days of ascension had ended.
"Ray" is a reminder of the greatness of Ray Charles as a singer. It is sad that the singer died shortly after the film was shot because he should be deservedly basking in the glory along with Foxx. But then there is no doubt that Ray Charles knew he was an American institution. Still, I wonder if he had to do it over again if Ray Charles would have avoided doing drugs. In the context of this 2004 biopic Ray's motivation for doing drugs is his feelings of guilt over the accidental death of his younger brother when they were children (and before Charles went blind). His ability to kick heroin is tied to his coming to terms with that personal tragedy, so the argument is that it was not the drugs that fueled the way he played the piano and sang, but rather guilt. If you took away that guilt would that destroy his passion? If you took away the drugs would that passion have simply destroyed him? Today we live in a world with Ray Charles, but this film suggests the possibility of a world where we never would have known he was alive and convinces us that would have been even worse.
Movie Review: An Oscar Richly Deserved
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Taylor Hackford parlayed a biography of one of the most uniquely talented singers of the post-World War Two era alongside a commanding performance by Jamie Foxx to propel "Ray" beyond the ranks of the traditional biopic into much more, a soul searching reflection of a great performer seeking to overcome the temptations of stardom and overcome an affliction that threatens to kill him.
In the case of musical legend Ray Charles, the superstar that Foxx plays with total conviction and unflagging energy, temptations along with the road to stardom was all the more difficult due to the singer's blindness from youth. One of the film's most inspiring scenes unfolds when Charles's mother, at the time he is going blind, tells him that she will be his eyes and give him instructions, but only once. She reasons that this is the way life operates; you get one chance and after that you are on your own. This is the philosophy she repeatedly drives home when he is confronted with impending blindness.
Using extensive flashbacks, Hackford via Jimmy White's script directs us from Charles's early roots growing up poor in rural North Florida to the pivotal period when he seeks to make his mark in music. One city where he receives an opportunity to be heard is Seattle, where he meets a young Quincy Jones and they explore the local musical world together.
Another important element of the film is the exploration of how Charles fought back when those around him sought to take advantage of his blindness. He learned through experience to question the process of counting out bills in payment for his musical services after having been taken advantage of by dishonest music promoters.
Foxx's greatest challenge, which was surmounted with believability, was getting across the tortured side of Charles resulting from his addiction to drugs. The painful process in which, by film's end, he has thrown off the monkey from his back, is handled deftly with Foxx never going over the edge or underplaying. The sweating and trembling appear real and one can feel the pain emanating from Foxx as he transports us into the tortured world of a man under the influence of drugs.
The compelling performance of Foxx as a man under the influence of drugs is reminiscent of the brilliant effort of Ray Milland as a man addicted to alcohol in the sober and hard-hitting Billy Wilder 1945 drama, "The Lost Weekend," for which the British actor, like Foxx six decades later, was rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar. The arresting performance of Foxx was reminiscent of Milland's in that, in each case, we can feel the pain of the burdened individual overcome by a potentially deadly affliction.
Another area where "Ray" pulls no punches is in the presentation of the temptations Charles confronts when he moves into the superstar ranks. While his loyal wife stays home and takes care of their son Charles engages in affairs with singers who perform with him, including one who has his child.
Charles's vital link to the rapidly developing civil rights movement of the sixties is also dramatically presented. One scene presents Charles at his most admirable when he refuses to cross a picket line and perform before a segregated audience. Pressures are brought against him afterwards by furious music promoters, including the one on whom Charles walked out, but he admirably refuses to back down even when his career existence is threatened, confident that he is standing on the right side of history.
"Ray" is a film with heart and soul that, through Foxx's dominant performance, gives us a fascinating look into the life of a genuine performing genius.
Movie Review: One of the best films of the decade...
Summary: 5 Stars
Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Ray is a captivating and inspiring true story about a man beloved by millions around the world. Based on the life and times of Ray Charles Robinson, the film follows the popular singer's life from the earliest days of his youth to the day of his triumph over a heroin addiction. Featuring a soundtrack second to none in the history of cinema, Ray is the total package in terms of a blockbuster film - great characters blended together with an inspirational personal journey and an unforgettable musical score. Actor Jamie Foxx gives an Oscar Award winning performance so lifelike that it's difficult to distinguish his character from the real Ray Charles. In short, Ray is a film that appeals to a wide audience and one that literally transports its viewers into another era...
Jamie Foxx plays the role of Ray Charles Robinson, a black youth growing up in Florida during the Great Depression. Forced to deal with the tragedy of his kid brother's death, and the loss of his own vision at a young age, Ray nevertheless triumphs over his disability when his mother refuses to let him feel sorry for himself. Learning to play the piano from a neighborhood musician, Ray strikes out on his own in the late-1940s for gig in Seattle.
Ray's amazing talents are instantly recognized, and he's never short of a gig. However, while traveling on the road with several jazz bands, Ray begins using drugs, and he eventually becomes addicted to heroin. When Atlantic Records buys Ray's contract, Ray's career accelerates, culminating in several number one hits. Eventually, Ray strikes a deal with NBC worth more than any other performer of his day, and he and his wife Bea buy a luxurious Beverly Hills home with the world spread out before them.
But things aren't as perfect as they seem. Ray's infidelities have taken a toll on his marriage, and his drug addiction threatens to ruin his family, his relationship with his children, and his dealings with longtime friends. Having already accomplished more than most men, Ray Charles must now face the greatest challenge of his life - overcoming his heroin addiction and living a clean life...
Jamie Foxx is simply astounding in his portrayal of the larger than life figure Ray Charles, and his effort was more than acknowledged by his Academy Award victory and widespread critical acclaim. But less attention is given to the outstanding supporting cast that surrounds Foxx. The role of the young Ray Robinson's mother, Aretha, is played by Sharon Warren with such passion that her character leaps off the screen and into one's memory as the second most influential character of the film. Aretha's dedication to her son's future and her demanding, yet loving, attitude toward his self-sufficiency are admirable qualities. And the mother's influence on Ray is apparent in his drive not to be treated by the world as a cripple.
Further adding to the allure of Ray are performances by Kerry Washington (Della Bea Robinson), Regina King (Margie Hendricks), and Clifton Powell (Jeff Brown). Through the interaction of each character, the viewer sees a reflection of the passion and driving life forces that moved Ray Charles toward his musical destiny. Ultimately, Ray is a film about relationships and dreams. The astounding heights of success achieved by a blind man (and a black man in a segregated society) leave the impression that any individual can achieve any feat to which he puts his mind. This is the true gift of Ray, a feel-good film with a happy ending about a man who showed the world that anything is possible. And that's why Ray is an absolute must-see movie...
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