Ray
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 29, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Unlike his songs, the film holds something back. It goes deep into a life filled with as much trouble and pain as triumph and accomplishment but never quite gets at the root of who Ray is. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Bursting at the seams with music, Taylor Hackford's ambitious film provides a good sense of the pioneering entertainer's extraordinary journey and brings it to life with plenty of colorful detail. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
If there were an Oscar for ensemble acting, Ray would win in a stroll. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
It's hobbled by the too-familiar conventions of the musical biopic: with so many chapters of Charles's life to cover, Hackford's movie never finds a rhythm, a groove, to settle into. It wins its battles without winning the war.
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
Sure, it’s the Jamie Foxx breakout role. But the movie around it is so systematically “inspirational” that it comes perilously close to sabotaging the breakout. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Sluggish, conventional, and almost completely lacking in energy. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Hackford's movie falls into a meandering saunter. As the music grows dull, so does the movie. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
As Ray nears its abrupt ending, it veers into camp silliness, complete with a psychedelic freak-out withdrawal sequence straight out of a Roger Corman LSD epic. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As a musical biography, Ray is driven by the primal excitement of rock-and-soul at the moment of its discovery. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Were it not for the performance of Foxx, the movie, which touches every base and slows to a crawl near home plate, would sink even when the score soars. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyKim Morgan
For too many minutes of its two and a half hours, Ray flips through its cinematic pages with a breathless and-then-this-happened urgency, offering up little in the way of personality (or truth) beyond Jamie Foxx's strong performance. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A fit tribute to an entertainer who, no matter what hate or hardship threw in his way or how many mistakes he made, we can't stop loving. Read full review
75
PremierePeter Debruge
Delivers platinum performances, especially Sharon Warren as Ray's tough-lovin' mother, Kerry Washington as his lily-tempered wife, and Regina King as his spitfire mistress. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Brilliantly embodied by Jamie Foxx in this unflinching, entertaining biography. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's conventional in approach and sometimes sentimental, even corny, in its content. But there were so many fascinating overtones in Mr. Charles's life and career that any account of them is bound to be riveting at least part of the time. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
If Ray fails to present a genuine portrait of a complex man's essence, it does leave you with an even greater sense of awe for Charles' accomplishments, both in his personal and public lives. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's a shame about Ray, because Foxx is trapped in a movie that takes the music icon's unique story and turns it into cheesy, sentimental American Dream cliches. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
While not a great movie, is a very good movie about greatness, in which celebrating the achievement of one major artist becomes the occasion for the emergence of another. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An extraordinary piece of biography. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
Ray could not have been made without star Jamie Foxx. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
There may not be a bigger-hearted performance this year than Jamie Foxx's in Ray. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Ray may be too by the numbers, but with Jamie Foxx out front, this is one film that knows how to make it all add up. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
At the center of it all is an incomparable singer brought to life by a sensational actor. With a huge soul to fill, Jamie Foxx has filled it to overflowing.
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Differs from other authorized Hollywood musical biopics in one striking detail: its subject, still alive when most of this was made, is almost never shown as a likable person. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Contains large helpings of Hollywood schmaltz, stereotype and clich‚, but it's also pretty impossible to resist. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
No matter the movie's pitfalls, Ray, we can't stop loving you. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Every once in a while, a performance pops out of a Hollywood movie that is so brilliant and unique to the matching of actor to role that it's impossible to imagine anyone else achieving it. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie would be worth seeing simply for the sound of the music and the sight of Jamie Foxx performing it. That it looks deeper and gives us a sense of the man himself is what makes it special. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Ray rambles on for two hours and 40 minutes, mining repetitive episodes like a TV miniseries. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Foxx's complex performance and the filmmaker's willingness to look at the dark side place Ray safely out of the realm of typical Hollywood hagiography. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
He (Ray) was, a more complicated man than this film, or perhaps any film, dares allow. Foxx is not at fault here. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
It's a shame his (Foxx) performance isn't surrounded by a better film. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A frequently transporting depiction of the early and middle life of Ray Charles, the film soars on remarkable performances, a convincing sense of time and place, and, of course, the glorious music for which Charles was rightly billed as The Genius. Read full review
100
SalonCharles Taylor
What Ray does right, combined with its generosity of spirit, makes it the most satisfying American movie of the year. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineEthan Alter
Foxx is the one standout in an otherwise overcrowded film. Read full review
70
Washington PostTeresa Wiltz
It is to the film's credit -- and Foxx's -- that we are able to see, behind the flash and fury, a man who didn't know how to love, and was so much the lonelier for it. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Vibrantly intelligent and tough-minded bio-pic. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
The heart of Ray, of course, is the music and, whatever other shortcomings the film may have, it does not fall short as a showcase for the artist's greatest hits. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie Errigo
Falling on the meaty, potential role of a lifetime like a ravenous lion, erstwhile comedian Jamie Foxx, so good in "Collateral," is just wonderful as the eponymous star. Read full review
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