I was looking forward to this film. I'm a fan of Ray and his music, and have heard some recent interviews with him on the radio. So, like you perhaps, I was expecting to see a film about a resilient talented fellow overcoming many obstacles to success. And, in part, this is in the film. But, the film is also honest enough to follow Ray through some much less flattering times: his heroine addiction, his affairs, his egocentricity. Yes, it's real, but you may find it rather off-putting to witness a hero knocked down a notch or two.

Additionally, in an effort to tell a great deal of story in a short amount of time, the punctuation of events at times becomes so tight it's almost comical. That said, the choice to tell the childhood story in flashbacks works very well to round out the picture and give it momentum.

While Jamie Foxx does a smashing Charles impersonation, I think Sharon Warren as his young mother Aretha steals the show. In her limited screen moments -- she absolutely radiates emotion. My throat tightened with empathy just to look in her eyes. So often characters like this (i.e.: Russell Crow's wife and child in Gladiator) are paper-thin, so flat you have no care at all for them. Here, Warren fills out her character with vibrant life. Kudos too to Regina King for her work as Margie.

Ray Charles Robinson's story is a great one to start with, and the film does a lot of things right. But with over an hour and a half of screen time on his drug-ridden, wife-disrespecting rise to fame -- that's just not how I'd normally choose to spend my evening.

Impressively, (and this may be a spoiler), Ray eventually comes clean with the drugs, but that is precisely where the movie ends. Also, be forewarned, the film is two and a half hours in duration.

Director Taylor Hackford talks about casting Jamie, "Jamie came over and immediately started playing the piano and Ray could hear at least that he could play. So they started playing and Jamie is playing a little funk and Gospel, but then Ray goes into some Jazz, some Thelonious Monk. And I'm thinking, "Oh, no, Jamie doesn't know it.' Ray was saying, 'Come on, man, it's this,' and he keeps playing this Monk Phrase, only Jamie is not getting it. Then Ray gets even tougher, saying, 'Come on, man, it's right under your fingers.' And I'm thinking, 'This could really blow up in my face.' But when Jamie finally got it, Ray, who had been pretty tough on him, said, 'This is it. This kid can do it, see? He's the one.'"

(This film viewed at a Laemmle Theatre.)