Hello there! First post of 2023. And I don’t know about you, but I am ready to get into a new year of blogging shenanigans. So let’s jump into the our first review of the year.
Ladies, gents, and non-binaries… “Raymond & Ray”.
When their estranged father dies, half-brothers Raymond (Ewan McGregor) and Ray (Ethan Hawke) reunite in order to bury the old man. And as they go through the motions associated with a funeral, the brothers begin to process their upbringing, along with learning about some of the stuff their father’s been up to in the years they’ve not seen him. On paper, I get what the story wants to do, and I think there’s a lot of great ideas found here, both in the bigger picture and in individual scenes. Sadly though, I never really found myself invested in any of it, something about the way it’s written just makes it feel like it never comes alive. I feels like the script could’ve used another pass or two. Not outright terrible, the ideas and even a few scarce moment are interesting, but the overall story feels undercooked.
The characters in this are fine. As with the story, they are the victims of a script that could’ve used more time in the oven. That said, they do still fare a little better. They feel a bit more defined, even if they never feel fully developed (despite the film’s best efforts). And then there’s the performances. On the whole, they’re generally pretty good. Ethan Hawke is great as always and just naturally slots into the role of Ray well, bringing him to life nicely. But then you have Ewan McGregor as Raymond, which I have mixed feelings on. I love McGregor as an actor, and he tries his best with his performance, but never did he feel like he fit the role. Whether it’s the dialogue or even a gaze, while his overall performance is technically good, I just never bought him as this character. Supporting cast is pretty good too, containing people like Todd Louiso (sidenote: where’s he been the last 15 years?), Sophie Okonedo, Maribel Verdú, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and a few more.
The score for the movie was composed by Jeff Beal, and I really liked it. It has this really interesting sound to it, mixing elements of lounge jazz with some mild thriller droning, and it makes for a soundscape that sometimes elevates the various scenes it can be found in. It’s solid.
“Raymond & Ray” was written and directed by Rodrigo García, and while we’ve gone over that his script isn’t the best, I can say that his directing is pretty solid. Everything’s nicely paced and his framing is nice. And that’s about all I can say, it’s well done. Not amazing, not terrible, just good.
This movie has not been super well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 47% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 49/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6.2/10.
While I think it has some good ideas, “Raymond & Ray” ultimately ends up being fairly underwhelming. The story isn’t very interesting, the characters are underdeveloped, the performances are mostly good, the music’s good, and it’s pretty well directed. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Raymond & Ray” is a 4.44/10. So I’d personally recommend skipping this one.
My review of “Raymond & Ray” is now completed.
Some spacemen use rayguns. Others use raymondguns.
TheMarckoguy 
I hadn’t heard of this film, but I am going to take your good advice and skip it.
Happy New Year to you, Markus.
Best wishes, Pete.