Review of Beyond the Sea (2004) by Ted R — 08 Mar 2011

I'm a sucker for a good film about a musician. I'm fascinated by both history and music, so those two together in a film...a good film, hits me. I happened to see Bobby Darin act in an old film "Pressure Point" and decided it would be good to see this film I've been meaning to see for a long time. I thought it was strange that Kevin Spacey at his age would play Bobby Darin and I had heard he actually sang the songs with his voice and not a voice over. I thought this was daring. Just as the name and character he plays it works.

I didn't know this was a meta type of film. If I had known this I may be been more interested in the movie before hand. Spacey acts and directs in this film and does an amazing job in telling the story in an interesting manner rather than just a straight forward biopic. Spacey does have some make up to make him both look younger and look more like Bobby Darin. Spacey does an amazing job. Not perfect, but still amazing.

I'll have to admit I didn't know too much about Bobby Darin, but the film did make me more interested in his life and music. I'm not a huge big band fan, but I do enjoy it at times.

Also the dance and music numbers are great on here. Again it is a meta film and does have it's "musical" moments, but it isn't a musical (thank God) and just uses it sparingly.

Overall this is a great film if you like music history and you enjoy a good story told in a really creative way.