Ray

Chicago Tribune Michael 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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An extraordinary piece of biography.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger 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.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

What Ray does right, combined with its generosity of spirit, makes it the most satisfying American movie of the year.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As a musical biography, Ray is driven by the primal excitement of rock-and-soul at the moment of its discovery.

Time Richard Corliss

If there were an Oscar for ensemble acting, Ray would win in a stroll.

Wall Street Journal Joe 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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Contains large helpings of Hollywood schmaltz, stereotype and clich‚, but it's also pretty impossible to resist.

USA Today Mike Clark

Ray could not have been made without star Jamie Foxx.

New York Daily News Jack 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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Brilliantly embodied by Jamie Foxx in this unflinching, entertaining biography.

Portland Oregonian Shawn 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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There may not be a bigger-hearted performance this year than Jamie Foxx's in Ray.

Variety Todd 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.

The New Yorker David Denby

Vibrantly intelligent and tough-minded bio-pic.

Empire Angie 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.

Christian Science Monitor David 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.

Miami Herald Rene 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.

Premiere Peter 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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick 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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth 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.

The New York Times Dana 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.

Washington Post Teresa 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.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

No matter the movie's pitfalls, Ray, we can't stop loving you.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

He (Ray) was, a more complicated man than this film, or perhaps any film, dares allow. Foxx is not at fault here.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It's a shame his (Foxx) performance isn't surrounded by a better film.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Ray rambles on for two hours and 40 minutes, mining repetitive episodes like a TV miniseries.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven 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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk 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.

Newsweek David 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.

New York Magazine 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.

TV Guide Ethan Alter

Foxx is the one standout in an otherwise overcrowded film.

Film Threat Rick 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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan 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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Sluggish, conventional, and almost completely lacking in energy.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Hackford's movie falls into a meandering saunter. As the music grows dull, so does the movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan 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.

Dallas Observer Robert 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.

LA Weekly Kim 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.