Raymond & Ray

Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke are caught acting in Rodrigo García’s odd, contrived little comedy-drama.

Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke

Raymond Harris and Ray Harris were so named by their father as a joke. During the next 100 minutes we learn much about their father, Benjamin Reed Harris III, who is variously described as charismatic, sensitive, playful, irresponsible, brutal and charming. We know all this because, amidst the refrain of “we’re so sorry for your loss”, all sorts of mourners proffer their appraisals in the wake of the latter’s suicide. As for Raymond and Ray, their respective backstories take longer to unfold as, being just half-brothers, they haven’t seen each other for five years and have a whole movie to fill with exposition and all sorts of revelations.

Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke play Raymond and Ray and as the movie is virtually a two-hander, it must have seemed an inviting proposition to get down to some tangy character acting. Ethan Hawke fares best, playing a charismatic bad boy with a sweet tooth and sour manner, who talks from the hip and attracts the ladies “like flies to shit,” to quote the man himself. Ewan McGregor is less successful as the sensitive sibling, who wants to honour his father’s wishes of attending the old man’s funeral and to dig the grave himself. Whereas Hawke fits Ray like a comfortable pair of old cowboy boots, McGregor just doesn’t convince as a tortured American divorcee who works for the water and power department of Cincinnati.

The female characters come off best, although their eccentricity begins to wear thin when every new character appears to be some kind of weirdo. The film seems to want to be Fargo but also to be heartfelt and whimsical and wise. There are a few nice moments, but when fresh revelations keep toppling out of the closet one is not sure whether to laugh or to grimace. Sophie Okonedo is terrific as a sardonic nurse with a Southern drawl and Maribel Verdú is fun as the lover of the deceased who cannot stop herself catering to the nutritional needs of the two new men in her life. The background music is annoying and unnecessary, but the photography of Richmond, Virginia, is an asset. However, it’s not until the final lap that the film seems to find its feet, particularly when Ethan Hawke renews his addiction to music and takes up the trumpet again (he played Chet Baker in Born to Be Blue). But when Okonedo says to Ethan “don’t be weird,” we don’t know if it’s an in-joke or even if we care.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ethan Hawke, Maribel Verdú, Todd Louiso, Tom Bower, Oscar Nuñez, Vondie Curtis Hall, Sophie Okonedo, Maxim Swinton, Chris Grabher, Chris Silcox, Leydi Morales. 

Dir Rodrigo García, Pro Alfonso Cuarón, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn, Screenplay Rodrigo García, Ph Igor Jadue-Lillo, Pro Des David Crank, Ed Michael Ruscio, Music Jeff Beal, Costumes Amy Andrews Harrell, Dialect coaches Erik K. Singer and Liz Himelstein. 

Apple Original Films/Mockingbird Pictures/Esperanto Filmoj-Altitude Film Distribution/AppleTV+.
105 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 21 October 2022. Available on AppleTV+. Cert. 15.