Ray 4K UHD Review

It’s impossible to know how Ray would/could turn out were it not for Jamie Foxx’s lauded performance. He’s the anchor to this movie, not merely replicating Ray Charles, but embodying the musician down to the man’s soul. It’s dazzling and masterful. The rest of Ray is not.

There are two scenes in Ray that feel farcical. The first is the development of Charles’ iconic “Hit the Road Jack,” which according to Ray, was composed mid-fight with Charles’ mistress, on the fly, in a bout of anger. Maybe that happened (I’m not one of Charles’ historians by any means), but the sequence in which that song is developed was mercilessly mocked by musical biopic Walk Hard only a few years later for its hollow, maudlin presentation. The parody was rightfully deserved (and wasn’t the only thing Walk Hard took from Ray).

The greatest failing of Ray is the depth of Charles himself

Later, as Charles recovers from heroin addiction, he enters a withdrawal-fueled haze, with doctors and nurses rushing in to care for him, images overlapping, and music swelling to sell drama that without said music, wouldn’t feel dramatic at all. Hokey doesn’t even cover part of it – it’s hyper-inflated melodrama by a creative team leaning on long-standing tropes to tell this story.

The greatest failing of Ray is the depth of Charles himself. Audiences come to learn about the source of his drug addiction, his infidelity, his struggles with race, his business success, and his disability. All of this is surface level. Charles himself, his process, his motivations never come through this script, which is as addicted to biopic cliches as Charles himself was to heroin. A scene in which Charles visits Jim Crow-era Georgia and speaks with a protester then chooses to take a stand is hyper-generic, and so void of consequence, the entire political stand feels shamefully hollow; it exists so people feel guilty for the past, not to show the man Charles was. It’s a movie that does too much, focuses on too long of a time period (condensing the religious controversy surrounding Charles’ music to one two-minute bar confrontation is especially funny), and never slows down enough to appreciate the man whose story it’s telling.

Foxx helps elevate this creaky, worn material though. Where Ray’s script fails to elicit any genuine emotion (even from a childhood tragedy), Foxx is able to take that and elevate even the most egregious of the familiar genre tropes. He’s an absolute powerhouse, and no matter how Foxx’s went previously (to think Foxx did Ray and Collateral in the same year is mind-blowing) or wherever it goes from here, it’s doubtful he’ll ever save a project like her did her.

Presented as a new 4K scan of the negative, Ray doesn’t look as such. Fidelity lacks firmness, a smidge above the included Blu-ray at best. There’s undoubtedly texture behind the clean, well resolved grain structure, but it’s flat, mostly. It’s a director-approved master, so that’s the final word, but it’s not that impressive or worth the cost to jump to 4K based purely on resolution.

There are of course exceptions, but Ray doesn’t pop much. Ray has some excellent images, but they’re lacking the precision of better masters. Nothing looks wrong per se, but it’s hard to give Ray a nod in 4K when the Blu-ray is comparable. A speck or two of print damage remains too.

The Dolby Vision pass? That adds to the flashbacks, which often utilize intense contrast for their aesthetic. Brightness is moderate elsewhere, popping out from stage lights and such, but blandly. Sunlight does offer some intensity though. DV also punches up the saturation in those flashbacks mentioned above. Hyper, neon-like hues pop and nearly bleed by design. Overall black levels recede into the shadows effectively, anchoring the imagery with a stable and consistent base.

DTS-HD 5.1 likewise doesn’t make a dramatic difference from the Blu-ray, but it’s a great foundation anyway. Piano keys are struck with stellar fidelity on the top-end, and every pluck of bass string responds appropriately. Ray’s score reacts similarly.

Decent ambiance surrounds outdoor scenes, whether in cities (New York sounds absolutely alive) or rural areas. Rears engage inside clubs too, with crowds pleasingly separated between channels. A scene where a child Ray begins to truly hear sounds after losing his sight has notable bumps in volume, alongside softer cues. It’s exquisitely balanced.

Historian and Author Dwayne Epstein leads things with a new commentary. A second commentary comes from Director Taylor Hackford, and he presents a short introduction too. A 28-minute featurette focused on the production is the lengthiest bonus feature, followed by a number of brief featurettes, 14 deleted scenes (with optional commentary), full music performances, and then a trailer.