FILM REVIEW; Portrait Of Genius, Painted In Music

WHEN Ray Charles died in June, he had ascended to the most rarefied level of fame; no longer merely a celebrity, he had become an institution. There is no doubt that he deserved this status, or that he enjoyed it, but universal esteem is not always a blessing for an artist. Some of Charles's music has become so familiar that we risk growing deaf to the audacity and innovation that made it great in the first place. The opening bars of ''Hit the Road Jack'' can be heard at every ballpark in the land, whenever a hapless pitcher heads for the showers -- a clever enough joke the first hundred times you hear it but a curious fate for a song that crackles with so much high-spirited sexual drama. In ''Ray,'' the new film biography directed by Taylor Hackford, some of that drama is restored, and you hear some of Charles's best music -- the signature R&B hits of the mid-1950's, the astonishing forays into orchestral pop and country-and-western of the early 60's -- as if for the first time. In the movie's account, ''Hit the Road Jack'' emerges almost spontaneously from a hotel-room lovers' quarrel between Ray (Jamie Foxx) and Margie Hendricks (Regina King), one of his backup singers. This episode may be apocryphal, and is no doubt embellished, but ''Ray'' succeeds, to an unusual extent for a movie of this kind, in presenting a vivid, convincing portrait of an artist.

If it falls into some of the lacquered conventions that bedevil so many biopics, it also has some of the sly candor that makes Charles's memoir, ''Brother Ray'' (written with David Ritz), such a delight to read.

Fellow FReepers. I purchased RAY on DVD last night. It is a recently released movie starring Jamie Fox as the late Ray Charles. I encourage everyone to see it. It did not take long for me to realize while watching it that in no other country in the world could produce a Ray Charles. In fact ask yourself, why is it that only in America do we see disabled artists thriving. Other countries subsidize the arts ten fold more than we do in America, but with a few exceptions only America produces artists like RAy Charles because we provide an environment of freedom which cultivates artistic expression. It baffles me to explain why the liberal left is so unwilling to promote the cause of libery and freedom abroad.

It was not easy being Ray Charles, in fact he endured the usual hardships of being black, but the movie tells the story of how a young blind black boy in the south grew up to be not only independent and self sufficient but able to fullfill his dream.

Only in America, no other other country could this have happened. Think about the millions of people set free in the world over the past ten years. How many are now fullfilling their dreams or at least attempting?

I welcome the views of others on this movie and whom you believe will win the oscars. I think AVIATOR will win best picture, although my favorite film last year was SIDEWAYS. Jamie Fox gives a first rate performance and should win best actor. Leonardo De Caprio surprises you in the depth of the character Howard Hughes that he plays in AVIATOR.

nikos vlachos

I think AVIATOR will win best picture, although my favorite film last year was SIDEWAYS. Jamie Fox gives a first rate performance and should win best actor. Leonardo De Caprio surprises you in the depth of the character Howard Hughes that he plays in AVIATOR.

Agree on all points except Sideways, which I thought was ok, pretty well acted, but grossly overrated and overhyped. Paul Giamatti is a fine actor, though.

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