Review of Beyond the Sea (2004) by Amy B — 07 Jan 2005

[size=4]Beyond The Sea is the biopic of the late crooner Bobby Darin as portrayed and directed by one of the truly greatest actors of this generation, Kevin Spacy. If you don't have an incredible grasp on music or you are younger than 60 you might not know who Bobby Darin is. His career was a roller coaster. Starting out with the rock song "Splish, Splash" and ending with the hippyish "Simple Song of Freedom". But what comes in between those two mediocre tunes it's what Bobby Darin really is.

His career really started to blossom when he began to do big band and swing standards and also converted songs to that type of style. "Mack the Knife", "Artificial Flowers" and "Beyond the Sea" are classics.

As for Kevin Spacy, his performance is nothing short of brilliant. When I think of all the people in the world who I would want to see a full length feature film about, Bobby Darin probably would crack the top 50, but Spacy makes you glad that someone thought to make this movie. Bobby Darin died at 37 with a large portion of his career taking place though out his twenties. Kevin Spacy, on the other hand, is 44 right now. The age difference could have probably been a problem if it were Keanu Reeves handling the role, but with Spacy you don't even realize this old man is playing a young buck of 23. You just believe it. It's as real as anything else. But they handled it anyhow. The premise at the beginning of the film is that Darin and his people are making an autobiographical movie based on his life. Ok, they did that, but they didn't really need to. It did provide an excuse to burst into big fantasy musical numbers when things god too sad or slow.

One thing I was a bit wary about going into this film was that I had read Spacy does all the vocals for the film. There is absolutely nothing of Darin's actual voice throughout. It's all Spacy. Vocals, Lead, Director, everything. From an outsiders view it looked like a bloated vanity project. But Spacy does so much justice not only to the role, but to Bobby Darin himself that even if it is a vanity project so be it. Let Spacy be Vein if he's going to produce this kind of work. His singing and dancing was on par with anybody working on the Great White Way.

Onto the co-stars. John Goodman played Darin's manager Steve Blauner. Goodman's always good, one of the coolest character actors working. Bob Hoskin's plays his brother in law/surrogate father/protector Charlie Cassotto Maffia. Loved him in the role, hell, I've loved him in everything ever since Roger Rabbit, the man delivers. But the Co-star glory belongs to the beautiful and (who knew) talented Ms. Kate Bosworth. I mean, after such achievements as "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton" and that masterpiece "Blue Crush" why would you have any reason to believe that she couldn't pull off such a demanding role. All sarcasm aside she does deliver. We see a perfect, blonde teenage sweetheart whose innocence is untouched until Darin marries her when she's 16. She shines in the part, and we will be hearing more from this blonde.

But when you get right down to brass tacks this is Spacy's show. He pulls off the song and dance act so well that even good old Keyser Soze would be proud. Spacy deserves the Oscar, but I'm afraid Jamie Foxx will end up taking home the statue this year, and rightfully deserved. Spacy's already got one, give it to the guy that was in "Booty Call".

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