Ray

I recall the first time the trailer for Ray played -- seems like the entire audience held its breath, hoping that the film would live up to our apparent collective respect for Ray Charles. You can breath again, the film is very good. But, (and I know I've been doing a lot of "yes, but" recently), the film is also very formulaic with a conclusion that is oddly off-center to the main story.

Foremost, of course, is the great news that James Fox's characterization of Ray Charles is well near perfect. Most historical bio-pics concern people I wouldn't know if I passed them on the street; here, Ray's face, body language, voice, and personality are well known to everyone, and Fox goes far beyond a suspension of disbelief.

The story, also of course, is the unstartling arc of Ray's life in which he starts off poor and looked-down-upon and then manages to show the world just how much talent he has. Happily, as this is all shown juxtaposed with Ray's great musical renditions, the chestnut of a story doesn't bother us too much at all.

The two quibbles regard the sore points of Ray's life. His philandering, abuses, and general S.O.B.ness are depicted clearly enough, but as it turns out, he was even more of all that than depicted on screen. For example, we see his wife stand by her man while he undergoes withdrawal; not shown is that she divorced him soon after. More, all the misdeeds are pegged to the death of his younger brother which comes off dramatically but also a bit too neatly psychological.

Finally, the film winds up with the same conclusion as Clint Eastwood's Bird -- great musician (almost) overcome by addiction to drugs. The closing frames seem almost like a "Just Say No" ad without a caution that even though we mortals may Say No, we'll never sound like Ray anway. And again, the film's historical cop-out is to suggest that our hero overcomes his addictions at the end. In fact, while Ray foreswore the hard stuff, he continued with pot and gin, usually together.

Oh well. Good enough for the expected Best Actor award.