Shining RAY
Jamie Foxx is Ray Charles. This is no wild boast. The former “In Living Color” cast member has already proved himself to be a good actor. The film RAY proves that he may be a great one.
Having been fortunate enough to have seen Ray Charles perform at the Hollywood Bowl, I know how the real Ray moved and sang. Having the complete Ray Charles CD box set also gives me some familiarity. Foxx masters the first level of a bio pic portrayal with uncanny ability...that being impersonation. The next level is where actors sink or swim. Can you make us believe in the film’s subject not just as an impersonation, but as a human being we can be invested in? To RAY’s strength, the answer here is "yes". We feel Ray Charles Robinson’s joy. His guilt. His fears and love. It’s a blessing for this movie that Jamie Foxx succeeds.
Because the rest of the film (story, direction etc.) displays some typical flaws. I say “typical” because we’ve seen film biographies make them before.
A person’s life is made up of hundreds, even thousands, of stories. To tell them all in a 2 and 1/2 hour chunk will do many of those stories disservice. They’ll either be rushed, omitted, or merely ticked off like a laundry list. RAY, under Taylor Hackford’s watch, does manage to skirt most of these pitfalls, but in choosing to do a “tell all” film, you get the feeling things are being rushed. This is especially so at the end. We see Ray battle racism, blindness, drug addiction, temptations from life on the road and childhood guilt. Once we get to the 60s, however, we have the obligatory title cards that sum up the remaining 30 years in Cliff Note size bites. Did Ray Charles not have any life worth a dramatization after these early years? We do have a brief stop off in 1979 to tie up one of these threads, but the rest...well, it seems the filmmakers felt there wasn’t enough time. Maybe it’s because Ray Charles had a live so big even the wide screen couldn’t contain it. For the sake of Jamie Foxx’s masterwork, we’ll accept this reasoning.
Another (albeit minor) flaw in RAY is another of those pesky pitfalls: the way too precious scene. You know what I’m talking about. It’s those scenes that depict key historic moments like when John meets Paul walking home from school one day. Both carry their guitars and, from the second they lay eyes on each other, are compelled to drop their books and start jamming to the delight of all their schoolyard mates and a closeted record department manager named Eppy. One mate will invariably say, “You lads should play in a band or something.” “Indeed.”, salivates Eppy to himself. These moments are usually depicted with a large dollop of artistic license (i.e. gravitas). An example in RAY’s case is the invention of his fire breathing success “Hit The Road Jack”. We can believe that the song was born out of romantic strife. That’s evident in the lyrics. Are we really supposed to swallow that Ray and his “Mrs. Charles on-the-road” lover, in the crisis moment of falling apart, felt so compelled to author those lyrics on the spot as if from divine intervention? It might have happened, but it sure smells of contrivance. I don’t mind condensing things for the sake of narrative shorthand, just make me believe.
Contrary to these lengthy quibbles, RAY succeeds because Jamie Foxx does just that. He lets you discover (or rediscover) a legend as a human being. That’s no small task and it is RAY’s biggest asset.
Can I get an “Amen!”?
Having been fortunate enough to have seen Ray Charles perform at the Hollywood Bowl, I know how the real Ray moved and sang. Having the complete Ray Charles CD box set also gives me some familiarity. Foxx masters the first level of a bio pic portrayal with uncanny ability...that being impersonation. The next level is where actors sink or swim. Can you make us believe in the film’s subject not just as an impersonation, but as a human being we can be invested in? To RAY’s strength, the answer here is "yes". We feel Ray Charles Robinson’s joy. His guilt. His fears and love. It’s a blessing for this movie that Jamie Foxx succeeds.
Because the rest of the film (story, direction etc.) displays some typical flaws. I say “typical” because we’ve seen film biographies make them before.
A person’s life is made up of hundreds, even thousands, of stories. To tell them all in a 2 and 1/2 hour chunk will do many of those stories disservice. They’ll either be rushed, omitted, or merely ticked off like a laundry list. RAY, under Taylor Hackford’s watch, does manage to skirt most of these pitfalls, but in choosing to do a “tell all” film, you get the feeling things are being rushed. This is especially so at the end. We see Ray battle racism, blindness, drug addiction, temptations from life on the road and childhood guilt. Once we get to the 60s, however, we have the obligatory title cards that sum up the remaining 30 years in Cliff Note size bites. Did Ray Charles not have any life worth a dramatization after these early years? We do have a brief stop off in 1979 to tie up one of these threads, but the rest...well, it seems the filmmakers felt there wasn’t enough time. Maybe it’s because Ray Charles had a live so big even the wide screen couldn’t contain it. For the sake of Jamie Foxx’s masterwork, we’ll accept this reasoning.
Another (albeit minor) flaw in RAY is another of those pesky pitfalls: the way too precious scene. You know what I’m talking about. It’s those scenes that depict key historic moments like when John meets Paul walking home from school one day. Both carry their guitars and, from the second they lay eyes on each other, are compelled to drop their books and start jamming to the delight of all their schoolyard mates and a closeted record department manager named Eppy. One mate will invariably say, “You lads should play in a band or something.” “Indeed.”, salivates Eppy to himself. These moments are usually depicted with a large dollop of artistic license (i.e. gravitas). An example in RAY’s case is the invention of his fire breathing success “Hit The Road Jack”. We can believe that the song was born out of romantic strife. That’s evident in the lyrics. Are we really supposed to swallow that Ray and his “Mrs. Charles on-the-road” lover, in the crisis moment of falling apart, felt so compelled to author those lyrics on the spot as if from divine intervention? It might have happened, but it sure smells of contrivance. I don’t mind condensing things for the sake of narrative shorthand, just make me believe.
Contrary to these lengthy quibbles, RAY succeeds because Jamie Foxx does just that. He lets you discover (or rediscover) a legend as a human being. That’s no small task and it is RAY’s biggest asset.
Can I get an “Amen!”?
posted by FHW | 7:45 AM
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