Ray

2004 was no doubt the Year of the Biopics. Naturally, the lead actors were what made these movies great, because all of them were great. Kinsey's Neeson, Finding Neverland's Depp, The Aviator's DiCaprio, Beyond the Sea's Spacey, The Sea Inside's Bardem, Hotel Rwanda's Cheadle and the one in my favorite biopic this year, The Motorcycle Diaries' Garcia Bernal. There's one missing there, because for some stupid reason, it took me all this time to watch it, and while it's not the best movie, it's the best performance of them all.
My father and I were in the theatre when we first saw the trailer for this movie, and the minute it finished he said: "Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles is going to win the Oscar", and you can bet on it.

Director Taylor Hackford has been working on Ray for more than 15 years, and he finally got it made the year Ray Charles passed away, not before watching (hearing it actually, since he was blind) the finished movie, and giving it his approval.
The movie is great, with wonderful acting, an amazing soundtrack with Ray Charles' signature songs, and a beautiful cinematography that make this movie an Oscar contender.

The rest of the cast, specially the women, are terrific too.
The studio (and Jamie Foxx at every awards shows he's been) has been praising Regina King's work, who played Ray Charles' chorus girl, (and lover) Margie Hendricks. Her performance is great, specially when she gets to sing with Foxx, but the other two women in the movie are the worth mentioning: Kerry Washington and Sharon Warren.
Washington plays Della Bea Robinson, Ray's wife, who had to put up with all the drug problems, and her countless love affairs. It wasn't an easy job, and Washington is excellent.
The second best performance of the movie comes from Sharon Warren playing Ray's mother Aretha Robinson. Sure, she's not in most of the movie, but she has two Oscar winning scenes that shouldn't be overlooked. First, as she cries for the death of her youngest son (Ray's little brother George), and then, when young Ray loses his sight, she must teach him how to survive without seeing, and we see her staying still and not helping Ray when he falls to the floor and starts crying not knowing where he is. Her face alone in that scene deserves an award.

But it's all about Foxx though, whose work here is just perfect. He's got all of the Ray Charles' moves right from the self-hug to that winning smile. And it's no secret that Foxx used prosthetics during filming, and also off camera, so he could adapt better to not being able to see. That's how committed he was.
Oh yeah, he also used to play the piano when he was younger, so he practiced again for the movie and learned how to play and sing Ray's songs.
His is the only performance I had left that I wanted to see before predicting the Oscar nominations, but thanks to Foxx now I don't need to, because his is one of the Best Performances Ever, and the Oscar will undoubtedly go to him.