"Ray"

Usually when I pop a movie into the DVD player, I doze off and fall asleep about 30 minutes in, particularly if the day at work has been a little on the draining side.

Such was not the case with "Ray". What a mesmerizing cinematic experience, and not at all deadly dull - even in the almost 3-hour-long "added footage" version.

Jamie Foxx is definitely deserving of his Best Actor Academy Award. He BECOMES Ray Charles, down to the facial mannerisms, the bobbing around at the piano, and his speech mannerisms. But lest it become a one-dimensional "In Living Color" parody, Jamie throws his considerable acting skill behind it and takes it to levels never before seen from someone who cut his teeth in sketch comedy. Foxx did some of his own performing, mostly songs from early in Ray Charles' career; when the more familiar tunes came up on the soundtrack, Foxx mimed to the original Ray Charles recordings like "Hit The Road Jack" and "Georgia On My Mind".

If you're a music buff, you'll enjoy the significance of the contacts he makes along the way - meeting up with a similarly young Quincy Jones early in their careers, signing with Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun (nicely played by Curtis Armstrong) of Atlantic Records, touring with sax player David "Fathead" Newman (who the closing titles note still tours the world and practices a healthy drug-free lifestyle). His switch in the late 1950's to ABC-Paramount Records is also given some play, in a nice scene where the Atlantic honchos are chiding him for making a business decision, but eventually Ertegun, realizing the Atlantic resources aren't as deep as ABC-Paramount's, gives Charles his blessing for the move. Of course, at ABC-Paramount, Charles started out doing songs like "Hit The Road Jack" and later migrated into country stylings with choir and string backgrounds, songs like "Born To Lose" and "I Can't Stop Loving You".

The frequent scenes of Ray Charles and others shooting heroin are mostly what gives this film its PG-13 rating. But his heroin use is not without consequence, as we see him going through withdrawl (without the benefit of methadone) in gripping scenes.

If you don't have one, you can get either the Widescreen Edition or the Deluxe 2-Disc set, by clicking the links. Do it, and you'll see why Mr. Foxx deserved his Oscar.