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| Ray |
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 (10/10)
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Runtime: 152 |
| Public Rating: 9.19 (175 votes) |
Director: Taylor Hackford |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama (with music) |
Year: 2004 |
| Writer(s): Taylor Hackford & James L. White (story); James L. White (screenplay) |
| Distributor: Universal Pictures |
| Reviewed by: Le Apprenti |
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When the production of Ray was underway, Ray Charles - whose life the film is based on - had taken ill. Many expected him to recover. They were understandably saddened when he passed away a few months ago. It was all in good timing that Universal chose to release the film this year. Since Charles' passing is still fresh on people's minds, it would compel many to go see it. Not a bad strategy for a studio concerned only with bottom-line figures.
But enough with the studio rants. What can I say about Ray besides its being everything critics say it is. It is a great film, well made with excellent craftsmanship from Taylor Hackford, and Jamie Foxx is superb as the master innovator-entertainer. Since this production was overseen by Ray Charles himself, certain detail of his life - particularly the ugly ones - are either glossed over or omitted so that they would not make him look bad. The official reason is of course for dramatic effect.
(N.B. Everything that is described herein about Ray Charles is according to Ray, inaccuracies, discrepancies and all.)
Ray Charles Robinson's life begins in a poor farming community in Greenville, Florida. Blind at age 7, he develops an ear for music and is already working as a journeyman at 18. His first manager - and first score in the bedroom - is Marlene (Denise Dowse), who makes him her cash cow as part of the McSon Trio. In 1949, Ray is hustled away by Jack Lauderdale (Robert Wisdom) to indie recording company Down Beat/Swing Time Records where he records music along the veins of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown. Due to trademark issue - because of a certain noted prizefighter Sugar Ray Robinson - Lauderdale convinces Ray, who at that time has been going by Ray Robinson, to change his name to Ray Charles. The rest is history.
Ray's path to commercial acclaim begins in 1952 when Atlantic Records – another indie recording company - acquire Lauderdale's company and along with it his contract. His early hit "Messing Around" is a song written by Atlantic producer Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong). The following year, Ray introduces a new form of music that fuses gospel with R&B (which we know today as 'soul') in "I've Got a Woman". This #1 hit has a gospel rhythm with secular lyrics professing Ray's love for his wife Della Bea (Kerry Washington). During a nightclub gig in 1959, the nightclub manager is about to demand his money back because Ray and his band breaches his contract by finishing 20 minutes early. Since they have exhausted all the songs in their repertoire, Ray does an impromptu call-and-response piece that is nothing short of infectious. The result is another #1 hit, the lengthy but sexually-charged "What'd I Say" (so lengthy that it has to be divided in two to fit both sides of an LP). After this, Ray is lured to mainstream giant ABC-Paramount in a lucrative deal. Regardless of what you have read in the past, the film formally states that he makes the decision in his best business interest.
The best is yet to come. It is at ABC-Paramount that Ray's career skyrockets with a flurry of glorious hits such as "Georgia on My Mind" (his first #1 with the new company), "Unchain My Heart" (a reference to his brushes with the law as a consequence of heroin addiction), "Hit the Road, Jack" (based on his real-life jilting of then-pregnant mistress and Raelette – Ray Charles’ female back-up vocalists - member Margie Hendricks), "I Can't Stop Loving You" (a salute to his country roots) and "You Don't Know Me" (another reference to his drug-related consequences). Then in 1965, he is busted for heroin possession by the federal authorities - he has cultivated a heroin addiction for nearly 2 decades. The film climaxes with his kicking the drug habit cold turkey and resolving other personal demons that have been haunting him all his life.
Ray is a very comprehensive autobiography that succeeds in including as much relevant details as possible without making the film feel too long. Each sequences is like a short in itself with its own short story. Ray’s first meeting with Quincy Jones and Jeff Brown, his introduction to heroin, his meeting with women (the forearm touch to determine their facial beauty), the death of his younger brother George, how he becomes blind, and all the bits of his performances at various places: it is quite impressive how all these sequences seamlessly form an operatic story with a single-minded theme without disrupting the pacing.
Hackford's approach in bringing all these together borrows greatly from The Godfather, Part II. The pieces that form the lead plotline of Ray's career and personal turmoil cross-cut frequently with a supporting plotline focusing on his childhood. Hackford treats the latter storyline as a flashback device to delve into Ray's blindness and reveals how George’s drowning tragedy becomes the chief demon that haunts him (according to the film anyway). Its supporting role is delicately executed without being intrusive to or taking attention away from the lead plotline. Eventually, the two plotlines converge at Ray's cold turkey treatment in a somewhat derivative "triumph over adversity" climax.
But I must mention a few things about the film that are factually skewed. Ray's first marriage to Eileen Williams is omitted as if non-existent. After Marlene, he meets, marries and fathers three children with Della. (Excluded from the film is the fact that Della was one of the original Raelettes.) When he is on the road, his romantic conquests are not limited to chief vocalist Mary Ann Fisher (Aunjanue Ellis) and Margie (Regina King) – whom he impregnated. Ray had as many as 9 children from 5 different women. For the sake of his good image, the screenplay stops at two mistresses and one illegitimate child. Ray's marriage to Della was actually annulled in 1977. Yet they are shown as a happy couple two years later at the ceremony in Georgia that gave Ray a public apology for imposing a lifetime ban on him after he refused to perform for a segregated audience in that state. The ceremony also formally declared “Georgia On My Mind” as the state’s official anthem.
Foxx sounds nothing like the real McCoy when it comes to singing, but acting-wise does a spot-on mimicry. The strongest aspect of his performance is not in accurately depicting Ray's exact mannerisms or diction, but in portraying his blindness. When a blind man is not doing anything, he just sits there motionless and usually without any expression on his face (though at times it betrays a hint of sadness and depression caused by social octracizations if not something else deeper). Even the way he moves around and relies on his remaining unimpaired-but-sharpened 4 senses have to be factored in. Foxx got all that perfectly right.
There is no doubt the cast will get at least a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble. They all look so naturally convincing. Washington as the longsuffering wife Della, Ellis as the sultry first mistress Mary Ann, King as the sexy Margie, Clifton Powell as Ray’s longtime road manager Jeff Brown, Bokeem Woodbine as saxophone player and chief heroin supplier Fathead Newman, Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones (whom Ray befriended during his early years as journeyman), Sharon Warren as Ray’s tough-loving mother Aretha, Harry Lennix as Ray’s studio manager Joe Adams, Armstrong as brilliant Atlantic Records producer Ertegun, Richard Schiff as Ertegun’s partner-in-crime producer Jerry Wexler, Kurt Fuller as ABC- Sam Clark, and not to forget C.J. Sanders and Terrone Bell as young Ray and young George Robinson respectively.
Not everyone may know about Ray Charles' personal life, but no one can forget his music. It is the lifeblood of his public persona, and is the other 'star' in this movie besides Jamie Foxx. Unfortunately, only the songs that made significant impacts in his story – mentioned in the previous paragraphs - are included in the soundtrack. (Not all of Ray Charles’ many #1 hits were career defining.) The soundtrack is a glorious symphonic arrangement beating in the same rhythm and time frame as the film. It deserves to be heard on its own. Many of the songs are showcased in their entirety. “What’d I Say”, in particular, makes you want to get up and dance. When you hear Ray and Margie sing “Hit the Road, Jack” in one scene, you can feel real hostility between the two – he just dumped her.
I will withhold judgment regarding Jamie Foxx being nominated for an Oscar (or winning one) because it is presumptuous. Foxx’s performance deserves one but that is entirely up to the decision of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. For now, enjoy the film as it is. Stop by to get to know Ray, and stay for the music.
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