Beyond The Sea Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)December 15th, 2004
BEYOND THE SEA
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Lions Gate Films
Grade: A-
Directed by: Kevin Spacey
Written by: Kevin Spacey, Paul Attanasio, James Toback, Lorenzo Carcaterra
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi, Caroline Aaron, William Ullrich
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 12/1/04
In the biopic "De-Lovely" Cole Porter is shown in the initial frame, an old man at a piano looking back at the movie that is his life. Kevin Spacey, who directs, has co-written and plays the principal character in "Beyond the Sea" does likewise. What follows works like a charm–a two-hour imaginative recreation of the career of Bobby Darin, who in in the fifties and sixties was a name right up there with the likes of Frank Sinatra. Spacey, one of the finest actors of our time, outdoes even himself in a mesmerizing performance of a man who learns late in life that his sister is really his mom and who finds himself in other ways as well as he becomes politicized by the Vietnam War–turning from an artist of the big hits to a folk singer who is able to make it with guitar accompanying even in the Flamingo Club at Vegas.
In the opening scene a young Bobby Darin (before he became Bobby Darin) puts his two cents into a staging that the perfectionist adult Darin (Kevin Spacey) is having trouble with. Spacey and William Ullrich, the latter standing in for Bobby Darin as a youth, team up to get the singer's life just right.
We learn that the 7-year-old Darin is diagnosed with rheumatic fever, a genetic disturbance that will later lead to major cardiac surgery to replace two valves. The doctor doubts that the boy will make it to age fifteen. His flagging spirit is raised when his putative mother (Brenda Blethyn) introduces him to the piano, which led to his discovery that he has a voice that could rival Sinatra's. Bobby's career is aided greatly by his supporting team, consisting of his putative sister Nina (Caroline Aaron), his manager (John Goodman) and his brother-in-law–who later turns out to be his stepdad (Bob Hoskins).
In a classy directorial move, Spacey from time to time changes from his adult self back to his pre-adolescent role–both simultaneously attending the funeral of someone dear to Darin. Director Spacey takes us through his assertive courtship of the adorable movie star Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) which includes Bobby's giving voice like a medieval troubador to his most famous song, "Beyond the Sea." The song-and-dance act that erupts mirrors a similar musical break in the early part of the film, featuring a group of Bronx residents breaking out in glorious dance.
Bobby's insistence against the will of the owner that a black comedian get hired to precede him at the Copacabana night club in New York predates his later conversion to radical politics and his aggressive support of Bobby Kennedy, who, Darin believed, could take us out of the Vietnam War.
While a studio might be tempted to have Spacey lip-synch the songs, while the real Bobby's Darin's voice would hold the screen–in much the of Fanny Ardant's lip-synching the voice of Maria Callas in Franco Zefirelli's "Callas Forever"-- the producers did the right thing by allowing Spacey to do his own singing, while he does just great in the dancing department as well. "Beyond the Sea" exhibits a Spacey at his boldest–a grade-A actor, dancer, singer and director in a glorious
entertainment.
Rated R. 118 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
@harveycritic.com
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