Sixteen months after principal shooting was wrapped, the cast and crew met Wednesday night at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a special screening of the film Ray. There are times when high hopes and expectations can make what you’re waiting for lose its gleam and color. This wasn’t one of them. For all of us in that audience, the wait was worth it.

The film was finished in time for Ray Charles to view it, and what he saw pleased him. Just tell what happened, he is reported to have said to Hackford, don’t sugarcoat it.

Hackford’s labor of love shines as a result. The film honors Ray Charles regardless of whether the characters sharing the screen with actor and chameleon Jamie Foxx love him or hate him. In Ray, Taylor Hackford has created a reverential tribute to Mr. Charles, and he’s done so with an invisible hand, neither hiding his flaws nor pushing his praises. Writer Jimmy White has scripted a story which brings to light the severity of the initial obstacles Ray Charles faced, then leaves them behind as Ray’s extraordinary devotion to music, and his faith in his mother and in himself, lead him to make a mark on the world which has crossed borders of all kinds.

Ray is the story of a man who changed the world by transcending the obstacles, and holding fast to the gifts, that his identity attracted to him like bees to honey.