Movies
Excellent: Movies this great are rare, so don't miss it.
Good: At least worth the price of admission.
Okay: See it if you have nothing better to do.
Bad: If you absolutely have to see it, wait for the DVD.
No stars: Frickin' terrible; give us our two hours back,
you director from hell.
Ray (☆☆1/2)
PG-13, 152 minutes, South Wind 12 Who knew Jamie Foxx had it in him? A veteran of Booty Call and Breaking All
the Rules, Foxx seemed to be just another comic actor. Until he turned up in Ali and this summer's Collateral, and I was impressed. Now after seeing him in Ray, I'm astounded.
As Ray Charles, Foxx is flawless. Directed by Devil's Advocate artiste Taylor Hackford, Ray is infused with Charles' soulful music and rhythm. The film chronicles Charles' journey from Ray
Robinson the boy to Ray Charles one of the biggest stars in America. It does so in an episodic, old-fashioned manner complete with flying magazine covers, newspaper headlines and explanatory titles; which honestly I could have done without, but to each his own.
Watching Foxx swagger and stumble, I completely accepted him as a blind man. Then there came the music. Foxx went to college on a piano scholarship and he can sing, which all work to his
benefit here. However, the man must not only lip-sync perfectly with Charles' own recordings but he must convey the emotion Charles put into his performance and he does so superbly. He is so affecting as Charles that, especially during the scenes with his beloved but betrayed wife and those showing his spiral downward because of a heroin addiction, I completely forgot it was Jamie Foxx. It
made me look twice when real pictures of Charles were shown. The power of his performance carries the film. Consider my bet placed: Jamie Foxx for Best Actor!
Lindsey Ramsey
Birth ( ☆☆1/2)
R. 100 minutes, South Wind 12
Once you get past Nicole Kidman's 150,000 pounds he doesn't
neo-Winona Ryder haircut and the scene where a 10-year-old boy jumps in the bathtub with her, Birth has some polish and a few effective elements, but not enough to satisfy. You can get past the hair, but watching a 10-year-old undress is more than a little weird. The story is as off-the-wall as a soap opera, but the actors are as dry and
restrained as Woody Allen's film Interiors. In fact, Harris Savides' glowing, wintertime New York cinematography resembles Allen's movies a great deal. Alexandre Desplat's score uses light flourishes during quiet moments and hardly any sound during emotional peaks to give a sense of loneliness and longing.
The most stone-faced of the actors is Cameron Bright as the young boy, Sean. He wanders into the life of Anna (Kidman), claiming to be her dead husband. It's far too long before the plot gets any
farther than this. Bright has the unenviable task of trying to act and talk as though Sean is a grown man. All he can manage is a glassy stare and an infuriating deadpan voice.
The rest of the actors fare a better than Bright. Anna's family (Danny Huston as her fiance and Lauren Bacall as her mother, among others) is bemused by Sean's absurd claims. They're nice to him and try to sort out what's going on, but there is an undercurrent of frustration and rage subtly transmitted by all of them. The subtely is nifty, but it doesn't add up. They do not defend Anna's obviously deteriorating emotional state. That they would stand idly by for so long while she is tormented is difficult to believe.
Setting aside Birth's considerable shortcomings, Kidman does unravel beautifully. One close-up lasts an intensely long time. The movie isn't so gauche as to imply that she decides Sean is her husband, but rather that she has seen something that is too eerie to ignore.
Bob Ward
16
Jayplay 11.4.04