Beyond the Sea - Musik war sein Leben

"Beyond the Sea" is Kevin Spacey's musical biography of Bobby Darin's life. Spacey stars, writes and directs. Most of the major players in the movie are still living and support the project.

Bobby Darin's story is a compelling one. He was born into difficult circumstances, suffered from poor health all of his life, was extraordinarily talented, and he died young.

"Beyond the Sea" is a beautifully layered film. Kevin Spacey uses some very interesting "point of view" methods to tell his story and he does so without overwhelming the viewer. He pays tribute to the big musicals without being sugary. He avoids cliché and tells Darin's story without being trite.

Bobby Darin's music is dynamic and diverse. He had a gift for song and delighted in sharing it with the world. Kevin Spacey genuinely admires Darin's talent and delights in sharing his own gifts with the world in tribute to Darin.

Kevin Spacey's acting ability is perfectly showcased here. His talent as a director is remarkable. His storytelling is strong and moving without being pushy or maudlin. He is honest in his depiction of Darin as both arrogant and sympathetic. Spacey's singing is surprisingly good. He does not insist he is Bobby Darin, he merely asks us to accept his portrayal of a great vocalist as accurate. Spacey manages to reveal the enormity of his own talent without being vain.

"Beyond the Sea" draws attention to Darin's rich and varied legacy. He was a prolific songwriter, a master showman (the only performer Sammy Davis Jr. would not follow), a successful popular recording artist and an accomplished actor. "Beyond the Sea" reveals the enormity of Spacey's talent and leaves him with a legacy that is as impressive as Darin's.

Bobby Darin was a great singer and entertainer. And his untimely death at age 37 was most unfortunate. But, aside from one interesting revelation about his parents, I'm not sure that his life was any more deserving of a film than dozens of other singers and entertainers from the fifties and sixties. The fact that "Beyond The Sea" is mostly a musical tribute rather than a traditional biography suggests a lack of substantive material on which to base a two hour movie.

The film's complex structure is unusual, in that the adult Darin (Kevin Spacey) talks with himself as a child (William Ullrich) and the two of them, via flashbacks and fantasy, direct a movie about the adult's life. It is an interesting, though at times confusing, structural approach.

What I liked most about the film is the music. Spacey himself sings the songs. And he does a terrific job with the big band sounds of "Dream Lover", "Artificial Flowers", "Some Of These Days", "Beyond The Sea" and, of course, "Mack The Knife". The film's secondary performances are quite good, especially John Goodman. Production design is high quality, and the dance routines are well staged.

Overall, listening to Darin's songs was great. But I would have preferred a more traditional, linear biography. This movie reinforces the perception that talented performers who die young are more likely to get film tributes than talented performers who live to an old age. Maybe, in some way, Hollywood feels guilty at the premature loss. Or, maybe, an early death makes the entertainer, over time, seem more idealized.

If you can overcome what I can't, you will enjoy Beyond the Sea: Kevin Spacey is too old to play Bobby Darin, the 50's pop singer who died from long-term effects of rheumatic heart at 37. At times Spacey is playing Darin in his twenties when no matter how you tighten and pin Spacey's face, he is still a 44-year old man with all the lovely creases and bags time awards. The dislocation bothered me so that I couldn't fully appreciate what is otherwise an outstanding performance.

But then Spacey is the director, so he has to be responsible for miscasting (or put another way, why didn't he do this 10 years ago when no one on this planet could have denied that he is the perfect Darin?). As John Irving said in "My Movie Business" about the choice of actors, "Looks do count." Although others have criticized Beyond the Sea as a Spacey vanity project, I found his performance believable and engaging with style appropriate to the best lounge singers of the time (Sinatra included) and spot-on perfect for Darin, if not better than the original. I've heard Spacey is touring with his band to promote this biopic; I'd go just to enjoy Spacey as a gifted singer.

The only moments to get past the many Darin songs and into his life are those centering on the influence of his "mother" (Brenda Blethyn, "Secrets and Lies") and his marriage to Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth). In the former, Blethyn does a bit of singing and dancing to show that Spacey is not the only multi-talent on the set. In the latter, the pop- culture lite of their romance is handled believably, as one might try to do David Beckham and his spicey love, a marriage just a vacuous and emblematic as the Darins'.

The irony of Sandra's mother wanting her to go after Rock Hudson rather than Darin brings laughter, intended for sure, as the audience is aware of Spacey's contending with rumors about being gay. Even jokes about Darin's toupee resonate with Spacey's own rugs in real life and for this part. Spacey doesn't take himself as seriously as critics do (witness an early scene where in the framing device of Darin filming his own life, he is accused of being too old to play himself).

The conjunction of subject and biographer is challenging at best. Paul Murray Kendall in "The Art of Biography" says, "On the trail of another man, the biographer must put up with finding himself at every turn: any biography uneasily shelters an autobiography within it." In that sense, Beyond the Sea is as much about Kevin Spacey as it is Bonny Darin.

This biopic ranks third next to Ray and De-Lovely; in another less-full year, it would be the best.

I was born over a decade after Bobby Darin died, so I know about him only through songs. Now that I've watched "Beyond the Sea", I feel almost like I know him personally. Kevin Spacey, who also directs, plays the famous singer whose real name was Walden Robert Cassotto. Showing Darin's career, his struggles with rheumatic fever, and his tempestuous marriage to Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth), the movie is like any biopic, but certainly worth seeing. It was really something seeing Darin doing folk music after having been a teen idol. Either way, Bobby Darin was quite a guy. I'm going to have to get my hands on a CD compilation of his songs.

This film just premiered a few hours ago at the film festival here in Toronto. Kevin Spacey, Bob Hoskins and Kate Bosworth were in attendance. It was a gala event. Having said that I was very nervous about the success of a film where one guy not only produces, stars in, directs, co-writes but also does his own singing. Well, the guy pulled it off beautifully. The structure takes a little getting used to. It opens with Spacey playing Darin starring in a biopic of his own life. When a reporter walks up to him and says: "Don't you think you are a little old to be playing a guy in his twenties?" I started to feel relieved. Spacey obviously was aware that this was a potential problem in the way viewers might view his starring role and he chose to deal with it straight on instead of avoiding it. The plot is not important in this film. Rather, what the movie is about is capturing the energy and drive of Darin himself and, perhaps most important, the urgency with which he lived his life. Darin knew from a very young age that his life would likely be cut short due to a heart condition. And that simply drove him to do the best he could, and to do it as quickly as possible. Spacey's singing talent is a wonder to behold. Without actually imitating Darin, he manages to capture Darin's charisma and stage presence and well as his singing characteristics and mannerisms. While I never forgot that it was Spacey I was watching, I found his performance to be entirely believable. It was obvious that Spacey, the actor, thoroughly loved what he was doing and that every ounce of his being and all of his energy had been invested into this role. This man is a multi-talented individual who tackled a very difficult project and somehow managed to pull it off - beautifully. Highly recommended!