Look at Me, I'm Bobby D
Writer, director and lead actor Kevin Spacey's vanity picture Beyond the Sea, an uneven mix of anticlimax and musical surrealism, should be one of the dogs of the season. Yet, in spite of the fact that the writing is often weak, the pacing is uneven, and supporting actors are miscast, the movie delivers on its promise as a musical celebration of the late and largely forgotten singing sensation Bobby Darin.
Darin was a phenomenon, akin to the pop wunderkinds of today, except he had talent and loads of it. In his short, 14-year career he won two Grammys, sold millions of records, was nominated for an Academy Award, performed regularly on television, sang in all the most popular venues, and was married to teen superstar Sandra Dee. In other words, he had it all, except time. His heart weakened by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, he lived every day with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, giving his supernova of a career a sense of urgency that drove him until the day he died at 37 in late 1973.
It is this driven, tenacious spirit that Spacey, who plays Darin, captures in Beyond the Sea. Instead of approaching the picture as a straight biography, he does something altogether more satisfying and trickier—given that he covers all of Darin's hits from "Mack the Knife" to the eponymous "Beyond the Sea" himself—he focuses on the essential part of Darin's life, his musical career. And this is where the power of Beyond the Sea is found in the recreations of Darin's stage act and in several wonderfully surreal musical sequences, including a brilliant piece depicting Darin's wooing of Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) and a piece at the end in which the adult Darin, who is telling the story of his life to his juvenile self, dances and performs a duet with the boy.
The movie is less successful as a straight drama. Scenes showing Darin's turbulent domestic life with the troubled Dee and the complex relationship with his sister Nina (Caroline Aaron) verge on movie-of-the-week histrionics. But as soon as the movie grinds to a halt, Spacey has Darin literally walk out of the scene and onto a stage.
At its root, Beyond the Sea is as much about Darin as it is about its star Spacey. Preparing for this part for several years, Spacey transforms himself into the charismatic singer. As soon as Spacey begins to sing, the picture's flaws fall away, and you understand what made this man tick. It was music.
It was something else, too. With little time to spare, Darin had to live a lifetime in a scant few years. He relished life, fulfilling his dream to be on the stage and singing—there is no doubt that Spacey is having a good time—and this might be the best tribute to a man who found so much success on stage.
Spacey and co-writer Lewis Colick play fast and loose with Darin's biography, omitting details such as Darin's second marriage, but it is quickly established that this is not a biography so much as a celebration of a career. We don't learn the details of Waldon Robert Cassotto's life, but we get to know his alter-ego Bobby Darin, the immortal being who will forever be Splish Splashing in his bath, as well as we can know anyone in two hours.
This might not be the best movie Spacey has or will make, but it is one of his most memorable and joyous.
Darin was a phenomenon, akin to the pop wunderkinds of today, except he had talent and loads of it. In his short, 14-year career he won two Grammys, sold millions of records, was nominated for an Academy Award, performed regularly on television, sang in all the most popular venues, and was married to teen superstar Sandra Dee. In other words, he had it all, except time. His heart weakened by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, he lived every day with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, giving his supernova of a career a sense of urgency that drove him until the day he died at 37 in late 1973.
It is this driven, tenacious spirit that Spacey, who plays Darin, captures in Beyond the Sea. Instead of approaching the picture as a straight biography, he does something altogether more satisfying and trickier—given that he covers all of Darin's hits from "Mack the Knife" to the eponymous "Beyond the Sea" himself—he focuses on the essential part of Darin's life, his musical career. And this is where the power of Beyond the Sea is found in the recreations of Darin's stage act and in several wonderfully surreal musical sequences, including a brilliant piece depicting Darin's wooing of Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) and a piece at the end in which the adult Darin, who is telling the story of his life to his juvenile self, dances and performs a duet with the boy.
The movie is less successful as a straight drama. Scenes showing Darin's turbulent domestic life with the troubled Dee and the complex relationship with his sister Nina (Caroline Aaron) verge on movie-of-the-week histrionics. But as soon as the movie grinds to a halt, Spacey has Darin literally walk out of the scene and onto a stage.
At its root, Beyond the Sea is as much about Darin as it is about its star Spacey. Preparing for this part for several years, Spacey transforms himself into the charismatic singer. As soon as Spacey begins to sing, the picture's flaws fall away, and you understand what made this man tick. It was music.
It was something else, too. With little time to spare, Darin had to live a lifetime in a scant few years. He relished life, fulfilling his dream to be on the stage and singing—there is no doubt that Spacey is having a good time—and this might be the best tribute to a man who found so much success on stage.
Spacey and co-writer Lewis Colick play fast and loose with Darin's biography, omitting details such as Darin's second marriage, but it is quickly established that this is not a biography so much as a celebration of a career. We don't learn the details of Waldon Robert Cassotto's life, but we get to know his alter-ego Bobby Darin, the immortal being who will forever be Splish Splashing in his bath, as well as we can know anyone in two hours.
This might not be the best movie Spacey has or will make, but it is one of his most memorable and joyous.
