--- title: "Ray" year: 2004 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/ray" fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 72 critics_reviews: 19 published: "2026-09-20T07:18:43.328611+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T07:19:04.468082+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ray (2004) Directed by Taylor Hackford · 2h 32m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, Music **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 72 from 19 reviews *In a sentence:* Jamie Foxx is so good you stop noticing that the film around him is the usual one > Taylor Hackford’s biopic tells Ray Charles’s story the way biopics usually tell them, one contract, one hit and one relapse at a time, for 152 minutes. Jamie Foxx and the songs make most of that not matter, and the rest we forgave. ## Synopsis Florida, 1948. Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx), seventeen and blind since childhood, boards a bus north to Seattle with a suitcase and a pair of dark glasses, looking for work as a piano player. In the clubs he is taken on by the bandleader Gossie McGee (Terrence Howard) and befriends a young trumpeter called Quincy Jones (Larenz Tate). Between gigs the film returns to Greenville, Florida, where his mother Aretha Robinson (Sharon Warren) takes in washing to raise two small boys. Ray wants a record deal and a band of his own. In his way are men who see a blind musician as easy money, the beginnings of an addiction, and a memory of home he cannot put down. ## Review Taylor Hackford’s film about Ray Charles begins with a blind teenager climbing onto a bus in Florida in 1948 and ends in the middle of the 1960s, and in between it does everything a musical biopic is expected to do. There is the poor childhood, the crooked first manager, the wife, the mistress, the needle, the road. *Ray* is good, and it is good almost entirely because of the man in the middle of it and the records he made. The film around him is competent and familiar, and at two and a half hours it is long. Jamie Foxx plays Charles with his eyes sealed shut for the whole 152 minutes, and the performance is all body: the rocking at the keyboard, the hand resting on the shoulder of whoever is walking him through a room, the grin that arrives a beat before the joke. The singing voice is Charles’s own, so Foxx’s job is the face and the frame, and he never once looks like a sighted man pretending. He also lets the man be unpleasant. This Charles counts his money in single notes, fires people without raising his voice and lies to his wife with the charm he uses on a crowd. Foxx does not ask us to like him, which is why we did. The music sequences are the reason to see it. Curtis Armstrong’s Ahmet Ertegun hums a tune across a desk and Foxx builds *Mess Around* out of it. A club owner needs twenty more minutes of set and Charles starts a riff on the electric piano that becomes *What’d I Say*, the band and then the crowd catching on one bar at a time. Regina King’s Margie Hendricks sings *Hit the Road Jack* at him across a stage, a duet that is really a row. We sat through these grinning, and once, during *What’d I Say*, we caught ourselves moving in the seat, which does not often happen to us at a biopic. Paul Hirsch cuts them long, staying with the band, so we watch the song being made. Paweł Edelman shoots the two halves of the story in two lights. The childhood in Greenville, Florida is bleached and overexposed, dust and sunflowers and a washtub in the yard. The clubs and hotel rooms of the touring years are amber and smoke. Stephen Altman’s sets get the smallness of it right, the tour bus, the motel, the recording booth with one good microphone. Sharen Davis puts Charles in sharkskin suits that get sharper as the money does, and the Raelettes in dresses a size too bright for the rooms they sing in. Craig Armstrong’s score mostly has the sense to stay out of the way of the records. The trouble is the shape. James L. White’s screenplay runs on a loop: a deal, a hit, a woman, a fix, a fight, another deal. Each turn is dramatised as a highlight, so that fifteen years pass and nobody seems to get older except by their suits. The childhood is returned to so often, and with the same images each time, that by the fourth visit we could have called the cuts. The women get the worst of it. Kerry Washington’s Della Bea Robinson is written as patience itself, and Washington can only play the writing; she has one good scene of anger and spends the rest waiting in doorways. King fares better because Margie is allowed to want something and to be wrong about it. Harry Lennix and Clifton Powell, as the two men who run the business and the road, are given more shades of loyalty than either wife or mistress gets. Hackford made a documentary about Chuck Berry in 1987, and he knew then how to stand back and let a musician be difficult. Here he stands back for the songs and steps in for everything else, and the film is better when he is out of the way. It is worth your evening if the music is yours, and again for Foxx. Bring a long evening; the film needs one. *Fi1m score 70, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Ray, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason. Jamie Foxx’s performance as Ray Charles is praised in almost every review, for the gait and the mannerisms and for going beyond impersonation into something that suggests the man’s appetites and drive. The music comes second: reviewers credit Taylor Hackford with putting the songs at the centre of the film and letting them carry it, and several note the period detail and production design with approval. The reservations are about everything around the performance. The structure is called conventional, by-the-numbers and in places overlong; a few critics feel the film softens Charles’s flaws or never gets far inside his head. The spread is narrow, with most reviews landing in a warm middle band. The one outright dissent comes from Slant Magazine, which finds the film hokey and the central performance surface mimicry, an argument no other review makes. ### Reviews we read (19) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): The critic praises Jamie Foxx's exuberant, physically precise performance as Ray Charles and the film's focus on the music and the man's complexities. It highlights how the biopic captures Charles's artistic genius and personal struggles without oversimplifying. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ray-2004) - **Radio Times**, Barry Norman (★★★★): Jamie Foxx delivers an outstanding impersonation of Ray Charles in this gripping musical drama that covers his life from childhood blindness and guilt through addiction and numerous affairs to success. Taylor Hackford’s excellent film features peerless music and benefits from Charles’ own involvement. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/freeview-film-of-the-day-ray-2/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (80/100, inferred): The review calls the film a satisfying biopic that succeeds in portraying Ray Charles through his music and Foxx's intelligent performance, despite some conventional biopic elements and occasional sentimentality. It singles out the way the story emphasizes the art itself over facile psychology. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/movies/portrait-of-genius-painted-in-music.html) - **The Times**, James Christopher (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as gripping with magnificent period detail and hair-raising musical moments, praising Foxx's pitch-perfect portrayal of the complex, self-interested musician. It notes the conventional biopic structure but finds the performance compelling despite some soft-soaping of flaws. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/ray-8jr9dwg7dsq) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (75/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a proudly conventional but wholly entertaining biopic powered by irresistible music and Foxx's dominating, charismatic performance as the blind singer. It singles out how Hackford's conviction in the well-worn biopic conventions makes the story work despite being by-the-numbers. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-oct-29-et-ray29-story.html) - **Screen Daily** (75/100, inferred): A solid, diligent biopic with Hackford putting the music front and centre; it captures admirable and unsympathetic aspects of Charles but feels a little slick and methodical. Reservations melt away in the face of Jamie Foxx’s remarkable, scene-stealing performance that goes beyond impersonation. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/ray/4020120.article) - **Sight and Sound**, Sam Davies (75/100, inferred): The biopic aligns itself with films about black cultural icons and relies heavily on Jamie Foxx's superb, naturalistic performance as Ray Charles to elevate it above the familiar format. Hackford lets the story tell itself amid biopic clichés, with the music providing straightforward pleasure. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/590) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (75/100, inferred): The film succeeds more often than not in capturing Ray Charles's career arc thanks to Jamie Foxx's kinetic and charismatic performance as the musician. It dramatizes his musical influences and shifts effectively but never fully penetrates the character's inner life or motivations. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/ray-review-movie-2004-1246638/) - **The New Yorker**, David Denby (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film vibrantly intelligent and tough-minded, commending its detailed depiction of a musician's life on the road and Foxx's revelatory performance that captures Charles's strength, talent, and demonic energy. It notes the movie refuses to get overly chummy and allows the subject dark corners. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/11/08/night-and-day) - **Empire**, William Thomas (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's electrifying musical sequences and Jamie Foxx's uncanny, charismatic performance as Ray Charles. Hackford's biopic is seen as doing fine justice to Charles' musical legend despite an ambitious but exhausting structure. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/ray-review/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's genial momentum and Jamie Foxx's virtuoso performance as Ray Charles, highlighting his physical mannerisms and the movie's unpretentious celebration of the musician's rise. They note it avoids deeper darkness but remains engaging and a strong platform for the lead actor. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,,1394654,.html) - **The Telegraph**, David Gritten (70/100, inferred): The review highlights Jamie Foxx's astonishing, Oscar-worthy performance that captures Ray Charles's gait, mannerisms and presence, crediting the director for prioritizing musical sequences. It calls the film decent and pleasurable but singles out the lead as truly great. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3635379/The-art-of-being-Ray-Charles.html) - **Time Out**, WH (70/100, inferred): An entertaining if slightly overlong biopic that is a middlebrow but honourable affair, keen to highlight Charles' background and guilt while ending the story in 1966. Fine cinematography, evocative production design and superb performances, topped by Jamie Foxx, more than compensate. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/ray) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a rangy, straightforward and engrossing biopic anchored by Jamie Foxx's uncannily fine performance, noting the terrific soundtrack and colorful detail of Charles's journey. It observes that while the even-keeled style lacks intense drama, it is one of Hackford's best works. [Read](https://variety.com/2004/film/awards/ray-3-1200531135/) - **Evening Standard** (60/100, inferred): The critic notes that the film pays proper tribute to Ray Charles with an uncanny Jamie Foxx performance and great songs, but feels it lacks urgency and fails to transcend the biopic genre as a fan's film. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/slow-blues-for-the-king-of-soul-7382822.html) - **The AV Club**, Nathan Rabin (60/100, inferred): Ray leans heavily into hackneyed showbiz and triumph-over-adversity clichés while presenting Charles's life as a series of dramatic highlights. Though shallow as biography, it works as a sensory feast with strong music and Foxx capturing the performer's appetites and humor. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/ray-1798200088) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (20/100, inferred): Taylor Hackford's biopic turns Ray Charles's unique life into a false, hokey mishmash of Oscar-season conventions and biopic bunk. The film is stilted and disingenuous, with a gimmicky central performance that offers little insight beyond surface mimicry. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/ray/) - **Digital Spy**, Daniel Saney (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a must-see exceptional movie thanks to its well-crafted structure and toe-tapping soundtrack. Jamie Foxx's uncanny, breath-taking performance as Ray Charles is singled out as the standout element worthy of an Oscar. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a18606/ray/) - **Eye for Film**, Josh Morrall (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it an epic biopic with charm, finesse and very few flaws, praising Jamie Foxx's faultless, monumental performance as Ray Charles and Hackford's stylish, unselfish direction that focuses on the music and renders mid-20th century America beautifully. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/ray-film-review-by-josh-morrall) ## Details - **Director:** Taylor Hackford - **Director:** Taylor Hackford - **Screenplay:** James L. White - **Story:** James L. White, Taylor Hackford - **Cinematography:** Paweł Edelman - **Editor:** Paul Hirsch - **Music:** Craig Armstrong - **Production design:** Stephen Altman - **Costume design:** Sharen Davis - **Producer:** Stuart Benjamin, Karen Baldwin, Howard Baldwin - **Cast:** Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles; Kerry Washington as Della Bea Robinson; Regina King as Margie Hendricks; Harry Lennix as Joe Adams; Clifton Powell as Jeff Brown; Bokeem Woodbine as Fathead Newman; Sharon Warren as Aretha Robinson; C. J. Sanders as Young Ray Robinson - **Runtime:** 2h 32m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 29 October 2004 - **Genres:** Drama, Music - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2004); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Nominee, 2004) - **Budget:** $40 million - **Box office:** $125 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2005: Best Costume Design (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Actor (won); Best Sound (won) ## If you liked this - *Bird* (1988): Eastwood’s Charlie Parker film takes the messier route through addiction and genius, and trusts you more. - *Coal Miner's Daughter* (1980), Fi1m 81: Sissy Spacek sings Loretta Lynn herself; the marriage is the story, not the hits. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/coal-miners-daughter.md) - *Love & Mercy* (2014): Brian Wilson in two eras and two actors, with the studio scenes the best of their kind. - *Control* (2007), Fi1m 80: Ian Curtis in black and white; a music biopic that refuses every triumph the form expects. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/control.md) - *Get on Up* (2014): Chadwick Boseman’s James Brown is at least as difficult as Foxx’s Charles, and the film knows it. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/ray