Ray of Light

JAMIE FOXX SHINES AS MUSIC LEGEND RAY CHARLES

Music biopics have ranged from the award-worthy (What'sLove Got to Do with It, The Rose, Coal Miner's Daughter) to the truly square (The Doors). Now we have Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, which took director Taylor Hackford 15 years to bring to the screen and is clearly the work of people who understand and love music. Hackford is a veteran of two authentic music movies—the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba and the documentary Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n'Roll. Foxx is a musician with plans for his own recording career. Charles, who died last June at age 73, approved the script, and "the genius of soul" sings 40 songs in the twoand-a-half-hour movie. Charles, blind since age seven, was a revolutionary who changed American music forever when he merged gospel with blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and country and western—bringing sexuality to church music and a testifying joy to popular songs. He won 12 Grammys, had 76 hit singles (such classics as "I've Got a Woman," "Georgia on My Mind," and "Hit the Road Jack"), and recorded more than 75 albums. To play him, Foxx had to get Charles's approval. "He gave me his blessing," says Foxx, but not until he was tested by Charles on piano. To prepare for the role, Foxx wore a blindfold for weeks, and during filming had his eyes glued shut for 14 hours a day. Hackford says, "I'm happy the movie took 15 years, because we found Jamie Foxx," whose commanding performance is already creating Oscar talk. Ray does not gloss over Charles's struggle to get out of the segregated South, his well-known womanizing, or his drug use. "Nobody did it like Ray Charles," says Hackford. "And what I'm most proud of is the fact that he participated in this; everything about this film, he touched." (Rating: ★★★★)

LISA ROBINSON