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Ray, directed by Taylor Hackford. Universal
Pictures, 2004, 153 minutes.
Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning by Jo Ann Skousen
"Exhilarating!" "Electrifying!" "Mesmerizing!" the display
ads proclaim. "Ray" is all of this, and more. At once joyful and heartbreaking,
"Ray" tells the Ray Charles story without the sugar coating of a typical biopic,
revealing Ray's struggle with heroin, his many infidelities on the road, his
business decisions that occasionally put money ahead of friendship, and his
inattentiveness as a father. Yet it is told almost as an apology, as though
Charles (who worked very closely with the filmmakers) wanted to acknowledge those
he had hurt along the way. According to producer Stuart Benjamin, who worked for
15 years to get funding for the film, Charles supported the project
enthusiastically, reviewing the drafts of the script and calling old friends to
ask them to talk openly with Hackford and screenwriter Jimmy White. The result is
not a puff piece but a well-rounded story with the ring of truth.
| | Jo Ann
Skousen is an author and critic living in New York.
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The story pays tribute to Ray's mother, Aretha, a young woman who refused to
coddle her son when he lost his sight, probably to glaucoma (Although I wonder if
those eye drops did more harm than good.) "Don't you be a cripple," she urged him
as she sent him away to a school for the blind when he was only seven. It credits
Ray's realistic and long-suffering wife, Della Bea, who said of his drugs and his
women, "Just keep it on the road. Don't be bringing it into our home." It also
demonstrates his painful, and successful, determination to overcome his heroin
addiction without the use of additional drugs.
Ultimately, though, "Ray" is about the music, glorious music that keeps the
audience tapping and nodding throughout the movie. Twenty-five songs in 2 1/2
hours — you do the math. It's a concert with a storyline. And what a concert
it is! Almost every aspect of the story is told in the context of one of his
songs, and all of the recordings are performed by Ray Charles himself, including
some concert tracks that were in Charles' private collection, never before
released. As we see the many innovations Charles brought to music, the crossovers
between gospel and pop, the creation of country and soul, the development of new
technologies, we come to understand why Frank Sinatra said of him, "Ray Charles
is the only genius in our business." |
| At once joyful and
heartbreaking, "Ray" tells the Ray Charles story without the sugar coating of a
typical biopic. |
|
Although it is Ray Charles' voice we hear (a wise choice; a musical biography
earlier this year, "De-Lovely," was ruined by the decision to let Kevin Kline
sing Cole Porter's songs), Jamie Foxx is not merely lip synching. A pianist since
the age of 3, Foxx is an accomplished musician who went to college on a piano
scholarship. He spent several hours at side-by-side pianos with Ray Charles,
learning the nuances of Charles's unique style. Consequently, Hackford did not
have to resort to the usual tricks of strategically placing a microphone in front
of the actor's mouth or cutting from a stand-in's hands to the actor's face. Foxx
performs each number, playing and singing, his fingers on exactly the right keys
with exactly the right expression, allowing Hackford to take long luxurious shots
of concert scenes that would not have been possible with a lesser actor. Far from
merely impersonating the celebrity he portrays, Foxx seems to actually be Ray
Charles. It's uncanny; they really don't look alike, yet Foxx seems to look
exactly like him.
Jamie Foxx is having a great year. This summer, as a taxi driver in the movie
"Collateral," he stole the show from Tom Cruise (not such a difficult feat, in my
opinion) with kudos from all the critics. He has come a long way since his start
as a regular on "In Living Color," a comedy ensemble created by the Wayans
Brothers in 1990 and often described as "Saturday Night Live" without the music
and news and with more than the one obligatory black. (In fact, Jim Carrey had a
role there as the "obligatory white.") The Wayans brothers are still playing a
version of that lightweight TV show, with their latest movie, "White Chicks,"
rushing quickly from theaters to video stores with a dismal 13% approval rating
on rottentomatoes.com (one of my favorite movie rating services). Meanwhile, Foxx
has honed his craft to become a legitimately praiseworthy actor.
The rest of the cast are equally as gifted, especially the hauntingly
beautiful Sharon Warren as his mother and Regina King as Margie Hendricks, one of
the original Raylettes and one of Charles' "road wives." I don't much care about
the Oscars any more because they have become so commercialized, but at least now
I have a film to root for this year.
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