Filming the music of a life
Can 'Ray' capture the grit of the real thing?
By Todd Leopold
CNN
 |  Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in "Ray" |
| |
| | FACT BOX |  "Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon ET Thursday. |
|
(CNN) -- Gary Busey did it. Lou Diamond Phillips did it. Angela Bassett did it. Dennis Quaid did it.
They all played well-known pop musicians in Hollywood biographies, and all managed to capture some of the complexity and charisma of the people they played: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Tina Turner and Jerry Lee Lewis, respectively.
It's not an easy task.
Hollywood biographies, by their nature, like to sand down the edges of messy lives -- and rock 'n' roll lives are often as grubby as they are glittery.
The best movies about rock 'n' roll tend to be documentaries, pseudo-documentaries or mockumentaries, such as "Don't Look Back" (D.A. Pennebaker's film about mid-1960s Bob Dylan), "A Hard Day's Night," "The Kids Are Alright," "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Commitments."
Oh, there have been a few movies about rock-era musicians that combined the creative spirit of their musician characters with the classic arc of a film biography. "Sid and Nancy" didn't shy away from its main characters' addictions and pathologies. "Almost Famous," until it copped out toward the end, offered a nice fly-on-the-wall take of an early-'70s band. And I have a soft spot for the 1983 comedy "Get Crazy," a fictionalized take on concert promotion, with a hilarious Lou Reed as a Dylan-like character named Auden.
But, in general, you need a brilliant actor to transcend the built-in cliches of a Hollywood biopic.
So here comes "Ray," a film about the life of Ray Charles, starring Jamie Foxx in a highly touted performance. As Charles was not shy about admitting, his life was often messy: He grew up in the shadow of Jim Crow, blind and poor. He was hooked on heroin for many years. He treated some of his lovers and friends poorly.
He was an incredibly talented and complex human being who created music of spirit and sex and soul.
How do you get all that on screen?
Eye on Entertainment takes a look.
Eye-opener
It helps to start with Foxx, who is also tremendously talented.
Foxx, who earned raves for his performances in "Ali" and "Collateral," immersed himself in the role. Already an excellent pianist, he learned Charles' jazz fingerings to be able to duplicate his sound. He watched videotapes of Charles' appearances to nail down his patter and style. He even wore prosthetics over his eyes to experience blindness for several hours each day.
For his diligence, he's earned great reviews and Oscar talk.
But what of the film? Foxx may be terrific, but does "Ray" do justice to Charles' life?
Along with Charles, the film has a decent director going for it: Taylor Hackford, who helmed the Chuck Berry documentary, "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll," as well as "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "The Idolmaker."
The film doesn't shy away from Charles' highhanded behavior or his drug abuse, though it does make the story fit the usual Hollywood arc.
Reviews, so far, are positive but qualified. David Ritz, who collaborated with Charles on his memoir, criticized the film in a Slate magazine story for ignoring elements of Charles' life -- particularly the death of his mother -- and for painting other figures, such as Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, in broad strokes. Newsweek liked the film in pieces but said it doesn't hold together.
Overall, however, Foxx's performance is carrying the day. It has the approval of no less than Charles himself. Before the singer died, Hackford showed him a rough cut of the film, describing each scene. Charles was said to have been pleased with the results.
Perhaps he liked the smooth edges of the biopic, but someone with as much grit as Ray Charles knows that honesty is the best policy -- even if it doesn't always make you look good.
"Ray" opens Friday.
On screen
It's the weekend of the single-word-titled movies. "Birth" stars Nicole Kidman in a ghostly tale about a woman who meets a child claiming to be her dead husband. The film, which was directed by "Sexy Beast's" Jonathan Glazer, also stars Lauren Bacall and Danny Huston. It opens Friday.And then you have "Saw," starring Cary Elwes in a serial-killer tale. It also opens Friday.On the tube
The World Series ended Wednesday, and I already miss baseball. But what I don't miss is Fox's coverage, particularly the one type of hell that will likely return next summer: the Fox character "Scooter," who's twice as annoying as Steve Lyons and about as dumb-looking as an Atlanta Braves mascot one of my friends calls "the Ugly Thing." If I had any say in the matter, the Fox brains who came up with this idiot chatterbox would be forced to listen to Bud Selig deliver a "state of baseball" speech, followed by a 24-inning game between the Milwaukee Brewers' spring training A and B teams. Election Day is Tuesday. Yes. Really. It's finally going to happen. Get all your election coverage from CNN and CNN.com, and if you're looking for a way to blow off steam in the meantime, try one of the many candidate-mocking Web sites. This
is a particular favorite of mine.Sound waves
John Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" (Capitol), his 1975 album produced by Phil Spector (and caught in an angry tussle between Lennon and Spector when the two argued over the production), gets a re-release Tuesday. The album features Lennon at his most basic, giving passionate life to a number of oldies.A Perfect Circle's new album, "Emotive" (Virgin), comes out Tuesday.Paging readers
Janet Evanovich leaves Stephanie Plum and her numbered series of comic mysteries behind, at least for now, with "Metro Girl" (HarperCollins). The book is due Tuesday.Video center
One of the great movies of all time, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," gets a special-edition DVD release Tuesday, complete with a second disc of new documentaries and an interview with former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.
