Beyond The Sea Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)December 18th, 2004
BEYOND THE SEA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"He's too old to play the part," complains one of the reporters covering the movie. No, the reporter is not talking about Kevin Spacey playing Bobby Darin in BEYOND THE SEA, but about a fortysomething Bobby Darin playing himself in his singing prime in his twenties in a movie within the movie. This wink-wink moment, of course, alludes to complaints that Spacey, a longtime Darin fan who has wanted to make this movie since the time he was the right age, might now be too old to pull it off. The script easily disposes of this complaint entirely by making the movie be about a movie within the movie with the older Darin playing his younger self.
There is also an actor (William Ullrich) who plays Bobby at around ten. And to further twist things around, Ullrich and Spacey have many scenes together as the younger Bobby delivers salient advice to the older. It sounds much more complicated than it is.
Although this biopic is worth it just for the story, which is a fascinating tale of a man with an obsessive desire to be a "legend" and to "pass Sinatra in every way," the movie works best as an old fashioned musical, full of long song and dance numbers and with some great songs from the Darin canon. Spacey sings all of the songs himself, capturing Darin's melodies and mannerisms perfectly, which makes Jamie Foxx's heralded turn as Ray Charles earlier this year seem like only half a performance since Foxx didn't do the singing. In short, if you love Darin's music, you're certain to have a wonderful time at BEYOND THE SEA, which Spacey also directed and co-wrote.
The woman in Darin life was, of course, Sandra Dee. As soon as he saw her, he knew wanted to wed her, and, when he set his mind on obtaining something, he wouldn't stop until had it. In a problematic casting choice, BLUE CRUSH's Kate Bosworth plays Dee. Although she is sometimes convincing, too often Bosworth comes off as being too smart to play a Pollyanna type.
Darin and Dee's stormy relationship has her pulling his chain by claiming his toupee is on crooked when it isn't and him putting down her acting abilities. "Kissing Troy Donahue is not acting," he tells her, believing that she has no comeback possible for that putdown. "You try it," she tells him in one of the movie's many funny moments.
The costumes are hilarious, especially Darin in a kitschy, banana yellow suit that no human being alive would ever buy.
The movie has several poetically insightful lines -- "People hear what they see," and "Memories are like moonbeams. We do with them what we want." -- and contains a real shocker toward the end of the second act. The last act loses its way just as Darin did in the late 1960s when his style of music and his type of stage performance became less popular. As he tries to find out what he wants to do with the rest of his life -- of which there wasn't much more left due to a childhood illness -- the movie also drifts aimlessly until it finally ends well.
We learn how long it can take to be a star -- twenty minutes. About to crash and burn before he ever obtained liftoff, Darin comes up with his first hit ("Splish-Splash") in twenty minutes in a recording studio with the clock rapidly running down.
BEYOND THE SEA runs 2:01. It is rated PG-13 for "some strong language and a scene of sensuality" and would be acceptable for kids around 10 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, December 29, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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