Best Actor 2004: Jamie Foxx in Ray

Jamie Foxx won an Oscar from his first lead nomination for portraying Ray Charles in Ray.

Ray I must say was I film that I hard time sitting through. I mainly had this problem because how boring the film is. It lacks anything really interesting about it, and I feel it fails to show the larger importance of Ray Charles in any meaningful fashion.

Jamie Foxx's performance really astounds me not because it is good, but because of quite the opposite. I will say first of all I never at all believed him as Ray Charles, even a movie rendition as Ray Charles. I always felt I clearly saw him acting throughout the film, which exactly what an actor does not want to do, especially when portraying a real life person in a serious fashion. Actors can usually employ mannerisms in a performance, and when used well they can help amplify aspects of a performance, or more fully realize a character. Foxx though seems to focus far too much on the mannerisms, using them for his performance at times rather than with his performance.

His mannerisms seem rather forced to me anyways, particularly in trying to give the perpetual Ray Charles facial expression which looked rather stiff at times, like he was really trying to get that look rather just merely having it. I felt about the same about his physical mannerism which again looked like a rather imperfect imitation, rather than something natural. I again felt the same way of his Ray Charles voice which again seemed like a obvious acting technique used by Foxx, that did not sound natural at all.

Jamie Foxx's performance never at all has authenticity, whether it is with his mannerisms, or just his emotions he is trying to convey. I felt every time he tried to convey an emotion he would always overplay the emotion immensely. I thought everything he did in the film range falsely in at least someway, and I must say he did not at all make the lip syncing at all believable, this looks especially wrong in the later scenes, which just simply do not look like Foxx is at all singing the songs. Although even if he sang himself it would not make his performance at all more convincing or less obvious. Foxx's performance simply just never impresses me, and fails with many of the basic needs of a realistic performance.