Ray

Ray (Director: Taylor Hackford)

RAY is the 2004 Oscar winner for Best Actor (Jamie Foxx), Sound (Scott Millan, Greg Orloff, Bob Beemer, Steve Cantamessa)

Taylor Hackford has a couple of films of note. An Officer and a Gentleman is his most famous, and he did Against All Odds. In 1995 he adapted the Stephen King novel Dolores Claiborne and in 1997 he directed one of the best guilty pleasures of all time, The Devil's Advocate. And if anyone's interested, he did the Meg Ryan/Russell Crowe flick that started all the rumors about those two (dominating the press for that film) and broke up her marriage with Dennis Quaid in the poorly-received Proof of Life.

Jamie Foxx, as is well-documented already, has broken out this year as a force in Hollywood. August's Collateral showed he could go toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise, and the Oscar buzz is high for his portrayal of Ray Charles. Foxx is phenomenal, not only as an impression of Charles, but showing a great emotional range as well. Whenever he speaks, you must listen. His speech is almost as rhythmic as jazz, a playful con artist--Foxx completely dominates this picture, carries it in such a way that you cannot bear to have him gone for long--which the film is happy to oblige.

Oh, but it's not just Foxx but a grand cast of supporting actors and actresses who flesh out Charles's life. A sampling: beautiful Kerry Washington as Charles's wife, Della Bea; Regina King (Boyz N The Hood, Jerry Maguire), a superb black character actress who gets her first meaty role in a long time as one of Charles's Raylettes who also has an affair with the famous singer; Clifton Powell (one of the bright spots in Woman Thou Art Loosed) plays Ray's best friend and band leader Jeff Brown, Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business) as record exec Ahmet Ertegun, and so many others including Richard Schiff ("The West Wing"), Wendell Pierce ("The Wire"), Kurt Fuller ("Alias"), Larenz Tate playing a young Quincy Jones, even an appearance by everyone's favorite 80's little guy Warwick Davis (Willow, and one of the damn Ewoks in Return of the Jedi). And I'm leaving out a lot of people here, which is unjust but necessary for time.

The movie has a little extra oomph that was missing from the J.M. Barrie biopic, Finding Neverland. And what I've come to the conclusion is that's it's the music, and a better feel for the inspiration behind the artist, and what makes the man tick. Ray Charles is almost like The Beatles or Shakespeare. Much of his art can readily be identified, and contains his unmistakeable signature. It's the heat of his performances that make the movie, especially when he wings "What'd I Say?" in a bravura improv after he had played his entire catalog to that point, and had to go on for twenty more minutes due to contract requirements.

Eventually, the film goes into Ray Charles's drug use, which is swept under the rug as long as he continues making hit records, and culminates in a fairly harrowing rehab scene. What's remarkable is with all the drugs, women, shady businessmen, and politics, is how this kind of music was made at all.

Is it perfect? By no means, except for Foxx and his surrounding performers. But what do you ask for in a movie? It entertains throughout, and a 2 1/2 hour movie that moves fast.