I finally was able to see the biopic “RAY” with Jamie Foxx in the lead role as the late-great Ray Charles, and let me tell you: it is most definitely a must see for every music fan and musicologist!
Jamie Foxx fit the part perfectly, and this I found very astounding. I find it really amazing how you can't picture certain actors in certain rolls and they do the job perfectly! They'd do such a good job they deserve Oscar nominations for them. A real good example is Will Smith portraying the great Mahammad Ali in “ALI”. No one, knowing the norm of his usual rolls, would ever picture him playing such a serious character as Ali. Well, I never pictured Jamie Foxx portraying the great Ray Charles either. Not with what he usually does, but he did so will at it that you'd think it was really Ray!
The movie starts off when he was in his late teens in the 1940s when he goes from his hometown in Georgia all the way to Seattle, Washington where he got his break. A 5 day road trip, and there he mysteriously runs into Quincy Jones, who was just a teenager at the time - I'm sure his name does ring a bell.
One thing I didn't know about Ray until I saw this film was that he was an adulterer and a drug addict. He was a heroin addict for quite some time until he finally kicked it in 1966. According to some online information about him, he started using dope when he was 16. He also experimented with Marijuana. I was really surprised and it just goes to show how naïve I really am about all the great musicians. A lot of them I wouldn't think would ever have done such a thing like committing adultery or use dope, but it just goes to show how much you can underestimate their persona because of their music. All the great music legends may be music legends and icons but they all have deep dark domestic secrets. Whether it be drug abuse or adultery! Paul McCartney still smokes Marijuana to help influence his music.
The movie pretty much ends in 1966 when he kicked his drug habit, but it's a definite must see. It talks about his upbringing from poverty, to his struggling as a musician in seattle trying to score a record deal, he tries to find love, and even though he has found it he'd prefer being with a groupie girl more and using his dope more than being with his wife and 2 kids, and than he realizes the groupies and drugs wasn't worth it because his family was more important so he goes and gets clean and breaks the heroin addiction for good, but most of all it's about his great music! We will all miss Ray Charles and I'm sure this movie is great! I give it an A+++
