Raymond & Ray
Half brothers Raymond and Ray reunite when their estranged father dies—and discover that his final wish was for them to dig his grave. Together, they process who they’ve become as men, both because of their father and in spite of him.
- Released: 2022-10-14
- Runtime: 106 minutes
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ethan Hawke, Maribel Verdú, Sophie Okonedo, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Todd Louiso, Tom Bower, Maxim Swinton, Chris Silcox, Chris Grabher, Oscar Núñez, Angie Campbell, Gina Jun, Laura Linda Bradley, Aaron Angus, Angela Deiss, Jim Meisner Jr., Mike Bailey, Lamont Gonzalez-Sierra, Lyeneal Griffin, Marisol Correa
- Director: Rodrigo García
Comments
- stp4883 - 23 November 2023
Wanted to love...But it's Terrible, the writing is a total inconsistent mysterious MESS.
First off, beware the preview. The movie portrayed in it seems to be a comedy/dramedy of 2 half-brothers (Ethan Hawke & Ewan McGregor) dealing with the death of their world's worst dysfunction junction childhood father. But it's not light-hearted fun in the least...Which is not a problem if the story makes sense, it rings true in it's universe and you can somehow understand & believe the characters actions. But this story certainly does not.
Is it a surrealist absurd take on bad fatherhood? Is it a rumination on the possibility of a bad human changing & evolving as he advances in life? There are so many strange, incongruent characters & things happening in this movie that it's hard to know exactly what it's trying to achieve. And no offense to the actors, i think they do their best with a questionable story. My question is when they read the script, how were they not scratching their heads at the premise? Seems like they should've been.
Just a few examples, this father of theirs who seems to be a terrible person somehow has fathered multiple children who keep popping up in the movie and the latest is about 10 years old that he fathered with the spunky half his age Latina women in the movie that Ewan McGregor winds up fooling around with at the end of the movie (Lol, payback/karma?). Somehow in the town of the father's funeral, he's viewed as extremely charismatic, charming etc by mulitple characters. This is the same man our 2 main characters hate & still have scars as grown men from? Oh yeah and 1 more thing, this father slept w/ his son's wife (Ewan McGregor's character) and impregnated her, so that Ewan's character has a son that's not really his, it's his father's; so who he thought was his son is actually another half-brother?!? Lol...Uhhh, yeah that's in this story.
So maybe to whoever's reading this, maybe you should see this movie for yourself and experience the confusion of these characters' actions yourself & make your own decision? Or maybe don't waste 2 hrs of your life and watch a more entertaining movie that makes sense and gives you something to legitimately think about. This ain't that movie in my humble opinion...Sorry Ethan & Ewan, nice jobs w/ the material you had but next time delve a little deeper into that screenplay... - tlarraya - 7 November 2022
Terribly boring
This movie (Raymond & Ray) was terribly boring. The actors are great but the story is terrible and it goes nowhere. It´s dreary, glum and depressing. I wish I hadn´t wasted my time watching it until the end in case it got better. Why would they want to make a movie out of this script? The movie feels like a theatre play and there isn´t anything wrong with that per se, but there is no point to it. There is no great revelation, nor any twist. It left a bad feeling in my mouth being so depressing. Normally Apple movies and tv shows are a guarantee of quality but it´s not the case even if the actors are great. - Davalon-Davalon - 27 October 2022
A misfire.
I do not know what the point or purpose of this film was, other than as a star vehicle for Ewan McGregor (Raymond) and Ethan Hawke (Ray), two fine actors who I have enjoyed frequently.
The gist of this story is that Raymond and Ray are half-brothers (supposedly) and that their father "Harris" has died. Raymond insists that they go to the funeral, even though both brothers hated the father, because he did not treat either of them well. Ray finally caves, and they go.
They quickly learn, via the father's lawyer, that one of the stipulations of his will is that the brothers dig the father's grave. Why they agree to do this, I don't know. But this is what sets the rest of the film into motion. We learn that the father fathered other sons, including acrobatic fraternal twins (who show us their tricks at the cemetery), as well as an obnoxious 8-year old boy, the result of an affair with Lucia (Maribel Verdu). We also meet Kiera (Sophie Okonedo), who was apparently the father's nurse at some point.
This group of mismatched people participate in the bizarre funeral that proceeds and takes up a good third or more of the film. When it's over, it feels like the film should be over. Instead, Raymond and Lucia end up connecting, and Kiera and Ray end up not connecting.
There are some great laughs and some honest, hurtful moments, but in general, the film goes on way too long without a powerful enough story to support it. The actors all did their jobs well, but it doesn't matter, because the story wasn't engaging enough. By the time we get to the end, I stopped caring, which is not what should happen.
I was really sorry to see a fine British actress such as Sophie Okonedo reduced to a small role as a nurse. (We don't see her being a nurse, but we know that that is her job.) Also, everyone, except possibly the manager of the funeral home, seemed to be highly dysfunctional. There was no one to really root for or care about. This is not a must-see film, and considering the level of A-list talent, it should be. - underscoremikecastaneda - 21 October 2022
Pleasantly suprised
Edited: I was still thinking about this movie the day after I watched it and might watch it again; So I must like it... It's a little surreal for me remembering that these guys were once Todd Anderson in Dead Poets Society and young Renton in Trainspotting back in the day. I'm in the same age group and I don't feel that old lol... This was a much better movie than I thought it would be. I wish it would've been released in the theaters because I would've gone to see it. There is one change I would have made to th ending, that disappointed me at first. That is why I am editing this review. Overall I would definitely recommend the movie.
