Synopsis
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
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Cast
- Jamie FoxxRay Charles
- Kerry WashingtonDella Bea Robinson
- Regina KingMargie Hendricks
- Harry LennixJoe Adams
- Clifton PowellJeff Brown
- Bokeem WoodbineFathead Newman
- Sharon WarrenAretha Robinson
- C.J. SandersYoung Ray Robinson
- Curtis ArmstrongAhmet Ertegun
- Richard SchiffJerry Wexler
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
As a musical biography, Ray is driven by the primal excitement of rock-and-soul at the moment of its discovery. - 90
Time
If there were an Oscar for ensemble acting, Ray would win in a stroll. - 88
Rolling Stone
Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one. - 80
Variety
Bursting at the seams with music, Taylor Hackford's ambitious film provides a good sense of the pioneering entertainer's extraordinary journey and brings it to life with plenty of colorful detail. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
Unlike his songs, the film holds something back. It goes deep into a life filled with as much trouble and pain as triumph and accomplishment but never quite gets at the root of who Ray is. - 60
Newsweek
It's hobbled by the too-familiar conventions of the musical biopic: with so many chapters of Charles's life to cover, Hackford's movie never finds a rhythm, a groove, to settle into. It wins its battles without winning the war. - 60
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Sure, it’s the Jamie Foxx breakout role. But the movie around it is so systematically “inspirational” that it comes perilously close to sabotaging the breakout. - 50
ReelViews
Sluggish, conventional, and almost completely lacking in energy.
