Movie Review

Real to Reel People: Ray and Finding Neverland

Real to Reel People: Ray and Finding Neverland

by Susan Frome

Its interesting that there are two good movies currently being shown in local theaters and both are inspired by real people.

The man is the music, the music is the man, the movie is the man and the music. The film, Ray, the story of Ray Charles, is also a tour de force for the actor Jamie Foxx. While it can be said that the female characters are not fully developed and, in a way act as backup singers, the actors are all very good. For instance, Sharon Warren is memorable as the haunting mother from his rural deep southern past, and Regina King as Margie (the roadie who called herself Mrs. Charles) and Kerry Washington as Bea Robinson, his real wife and mother of his children, are all effective.

The music, on the other hand, doesnt back up the film; it carries it gloriously from the intimacy of down-home smoky rhythm and blues to the sold-out generic commercialism of orchestral pop and country and western. In between, flashbacks take us to a different time, place and visual hue. Its the thirties in backwater Northern Florida filtered through Charless memories. It is here that the early tragedies of his life took placehis little brothers death, his blindness at an early age and his mothers insistence that he learn to stand on his own and take pity from no one.

The production is directed by Taylor Hackford, screenplay by James L. White based on a story by Hackford and White. According to actor Jamie Foxx, Mr. Charles approved of the storyline down to the unflattering aspects of his life and actions. Thus, at the outset, we view blind Ray Charles Robinson starting out on a prescient bus ride to Seattle, using a ruse to get past the reluctant driver, as he begins his professional life in music. There are great scenes of African American bars and dives during this formative period where Mr. Charles thrives and is both taken care of and taken advantage of by his handlers. In effect, its a true history of black America and musicians trying to make it in the record/entertainment industry during the hard times from the late forties to the 1960s. One has great admiration for his fortitude and adaptability, creating new styles such as combining gospel with R&B as in the song I Got a Woman which offended some religious audiences at the time. Sadly, he is introduced to the world of drugs by his fellow band members on the road and later explains his need in terms of extreme loneliness, often left adrift after a set as his buddies go out on the town. He becomes addicted to heroin and, later in the film, we see him finally forced to go through the throes of rehab. We also see what his wife and family had to go through as well as the tribulations of the women he took up with in his life on the road. But, again, all of this is uplifted and surrounded by his music as if the movie were a concert with narrative interludes, greatly enhanced by the cinematography to transport you deep into the experience.

Of course all of this would not truly happen if it were not for Jamie Foxxs uncanny ability to inhabit Ray Charless moods, inimical movements, and moment to moment spontaneity. According to Mr. Foxx, Mr. Charles chose him for the role because hes got it down. The film is two-and-a-half hours long and, unlike other lengthy movies, you dont feel the time passing. In fact, you want it to go on. One of Mr. Charless greatest moments, which is depicted in the closing moments of Ray, was his return to Georgia to receive an apology from the legislature for his banishment: he had walked out on a segregated concert after civil rights demonstrators begged him not to perform. At the ceremony in his honor, state representativespresented him with a plaque, welcomed him back, and made his hit song Georgia on My Mind the official state song. Ray Charles died at the age of seventy-three in 2004.

Finding Neverland is billed as a holiday family movie. Im not quite sure why it would be described as a holiday film, but can readily see why it would be suitable for family viewing; that is, if members of the younger set are sensitive and able to take a little bit of tragedy. Therefore, on balance, its appropriate for adults, parents and children together (which is certainly unusual in these days of targeted demographics) and is also well suited for this time of year.

The film is a softly stunning picture of Victorian London, beginning with a scene of a busy thoroughfare, with horse-drawn carriages arriving for an opening night of a J.M. Barrie play. As it turns out, its an unusual flop for this celebrated well-to-do playwright. The story then focuses on finding inspiration for a new venture; hopefully this next time around, a hit.

Director Marc Forster has said that this particular narrative is about imagination, creativity and belief. As Barrie searches for ideas, one can say that Forster and the production have achieved those goals. There are wondrous scenes in Kensington Park, at Barries Victorian townhouse, as well as in and about his country cottage. For example, he meets the Llewelyn Davies family in the park with his jolly fun-loving Newfoundland. And before you know it, he is dancing with the dog for the amusement of four appreciative boys and their widowed mother. The scene transforms into a magical circus act with a trained bear dancing with Mr. Barrie. Another of these transformations takes place at the cottage where an original play presentation by one of the boys becomes a sylvan fairyland replete with masks, costumes and the like. These richly imaginative cinematic visions are interwoven throughout.

Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie could be said to be too subtle and subdued, in spite of various opportunities like moments of pirate play and derring-do with his new young friends. However, according to Mr. Depp, his character is so kind ofstraight. The characterits so sweet. Since he does play Barrie straight and sweet, the playwrights understanding of children, becoming like them and respecting them, comes off well.

As Depp as Barrie becomes more involved with this family, the plot for his new play grows into the 1904 classic Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldnt Grow Up. Of course, its easy to see that Barrie himself didnt much care about growing up he and his wife divorced after what looks like an empty married life, and apparently he didnt get along well with adults in general. Ironically, part of the drama hinges on the very brother who was the prototype for Peter coming around to believe in magic himself.

The films are both worth seeing. From having viewed them on the screen, it would have been a privilege to have met each one of these reel people in real life.

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