QnD Review: Ray

Went with the lovely and talented Heather Waterfield and saw this one this evening, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Everything you hear about Jamie Foxx's work is true - he so embodies the spirit and physical presence of the man that you stop relating to him as an actor and simply think of him as Ray himself. When he sings, the lip synching is spot-on, and his movements are not mere imitation, but pure performance emulation. Really great stuff. And the film does not shy away from dealing head-on with the more negative aspects of Charles - his heroin addiction, his womanizing, occasional poor treatment of friends - it's all here, and the movie doesn't make excuses for who he was, it simply demonstrates how it was part of a life story, one which Charles did make it out of on the other side, triumphant. The film suffers from the typical biopic trap of trying to say too much - can any one life be summed up in only three hours? - and as a result, the movie seems to end well before it can give dramatic closure to a lot of the storylines it begins. But on the whole, it is a very well told story featuring an amazing performance, and is well worth seeing.