Do people really live out their lives acting out a series of cliches, or is it just that way in the movies? I saw RAY yesterday, and it was a lot like a Douglas Sirk melodrama from the 1950s with a little more frankness about drugs and sex (but not much more; it's rated PG-13, after all). For that matter, it's a lot like one of those '50s rock 'n' roll movies of the GO, JOHNNY, GO era, especially in the way it presents the off-the-cuff creation of classics like "What'd I Say?" and "Hit the Road, Jack." Even though the movie's very long (and sometimes seems even longer), it doesn't really deal with the complexity of Ray Charles' character (it all goes back to childhood trauma!), and some of the supporting cast members are reduced to simple stereotypes. Sure, Jamie Foxx does a terrific job of presenting himself as Charles (except for a dream sequence at the end, when the glasses come off and show us Foxx himself, a jarring note). And of course the music is wonderful, worth the price of admission all by itself, but I left the theater feeling pretty unsatisfied. As we know, however, I'm a grumpy old man, and some of the audience liked the movie a lot more than I did. One elderly black woman pushing a walker told the woman beside her that she loved it and that she was "ready to see it again right now!"
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