Raymond & Ray Review

Distant half-brothers brought together by grief is a story only as strong as its leading performances. To have both Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor on-screen together is a treat like no other. To see them undermined by a real lack of quality elsewhere, though, that is the trouble for Raymond & Ray. Bouncing through on the solid but unrefined work found in Four Good Days, director Rodrigo García fancies himself as a character-driven storyteller. But what he lacks in directing vision he also lacks in speaking to his audience through the conduit of two brothers with little in common aside from a dead father and a goal to share.

Digging a grave is an oddly specific request for two mourning sons, and Raymond & Ray never quite takes hold of the binary opposites at its heart. Raymond (McGregor) is the clean-cut and organised fellow, and Ray (Hawke) is the out-of-it counterpart that plays so favourably as the black sheep of the family. That inevitability is fairly dull and it does weigh heavily on two normally tremendous performers. There is a procession for those that grow into the cliché presented here. On the rocks marriages, uncaring half-brothers, the slow burn that comes between them and brings them closer is as inevitable as the fallout toward the end. Strange changes and plenty of confusion make Raymond & Ray hopeful of its uniqueness but poorly orchestrated.

Familial and familiar drama takes a step too far for Raymond & Ray, a piece dominated by performances hoping to be dramatic but not at all encouraging to see. Harsh truths are delivered from character to character with inevitably explosive results that are extinguished before you know it. A titular pair dealing with demons old and new should work considering the talent and consistencies of the two men in those leading roles, but it never comes up with much beyond a mediocre and rather strange series of attempted burials. Trumpet playing, crying fits and fighting with a layer of dark comedy that Death at a Funeral attempted to appeal to, although Raymond & Ray doesn’t have such a stature and likely never will.

Not because it does not have engaging moments, but there are parts to this AppleTV exclusive that do exude some broader charm or active recognition of how strange the process of grieving is. Especially the post-fallout that comes from unanswered questions or the muddling of the dead in the pasts of the living. Raymond & Ray expresses some real and tremendous insight into that but never, ever, makes it feel believable. That comes from the lighter tone it takes at the wrong times, but considering the powerhouse pair at the core of this and the Maribel Verdú, it should have been better. Still, Hawke shows off his trumpet-playing skills, and that will be more than enough for most. Hawke gives a tremendously raw performance, McGregor does the heavy lifting needed to build up and on from this crumbling script, and the two manage to make it through together with relative success.