Ray 2004
Ever since being a kid hearing Ray Charles sing “Georgia on My Mind,” I have been a fan. Later on when I heard some of his earlier, more upbeat work, my respect and appreciation grew. This biography of the great musician adds as much luster as it removes. We see a little more of what Ray was up against throughout his life. Just getting to be successful in show business is never easy. But being blind made him easily cheated (he insisted on being paid in one dollar bills so that people couldn’t lie and tell him they were giving him bigger bills) and he also had to deal with racism of the time and a dirt poor background.
The movie starts with the mandatory scenes of his sharecropper upbringing as he loses his sight and his only brother. Then we meet him again as he leaves his home state of Florida (Georgia claims him because he was born in Albany) to start in a jazz club in Seattle. He has a great deal of talent as an imitator of other people’s styles, and while his musical sensibilities are very good, he isn’t writing his own music yet. This problem continues to plague him even after he gets his first recording contract and a new soulful persona is created by a geeky white record producer who writes “The Mess Around” for him. This is what I mean by losing some luster. While Ray Charles has somehow gotten tagged as “Genius,” he actually struggled for originality.
We follow Ray to the arc of success from the 50’s through the 60’s and into the 70’s before he starts to fade. More luster is lost as we see the rampant womanizing and drug use he practiced. But, luster is gained as you see him hold a band together, make tough business decisions, take a stand against segregation, innovate musically by combining gospel, jazz, and blues to make R&B, and then leave that behind to change the type of music he plays. And somehow he keeps his family together (more of a credit to his wife, but he stuck by her) and finally shakes the drug addiction.
So it’s a nice story, but nothing earth-shattering or awe-inspiring. In fact that story is kind of weak. Though his career spanned more than 50 years, taking a look at 20 of them may have been more than the filmmakers should have tackled. His mother’s influence is prominent but we don’t find out what happened to her or when. We get some insight into Ray’s techniques for living with blindness, but not very often. What is amazing about this film, and Oscar recognized it, was the performance by Jamie Foxx. The DVD extras, which are kind of weak, point out that Foxx had eye prosthetics that sealed his eyes shut and had to wear them all day, every day, on the set. So he really was blind. And, as a trained pianist, he was able to learn to play the songs instead of showing someone else’s hands playing. He really does capture Ray Charles and still come across as a real character instead of an impersonation. Some of the side characters aren’t nearly as good as that though. So what you end up with is a good movie, not great, that is more interesting than it is gripping. I’ll give it a B.
Owned on: Digital