WHO MADE IT? | Director: Taylor Hackford Cast: Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Harry Lennix, Terrence Dashon Howard and Larenz Tate | WHAT'S IT ABOUT? | This is a biopic of American music legend Ray Charles (Foxx). It follows the most volatile period of his career which starts from the moment the young, blind teenager gets on a Florida bus all alone and travels across the States to hone his skills in the Seattle jazz scene. It charts Charles' early struggles, his discovery by Atlantic Records and his meteoric rise to worldwide fame. | WHAT'S IT LIKE? | It's been fifteen years in the making, and Hackford has delivered a no-nonsense life story depicting Charles' love of women, drugs and alcohol on his way to changing the history of American music. Jamie Foxx gives an outstanding performance, worthy of every accolade imaginable - he's already being touted for the coveted Oscar. All the musical numbers are sung by Ray Charles himself, who re-recorded them specially for the film but it is Foxx playing the piano. He learnt when he was three. A great supporting cast too. The only downer is that the last three or four decades of his life are packed into the last twenty minutes of the film - which feels a bit long, as it is. Definitely worth seeing. | RAY opens on January 212005
