Beyond the Sea (2004)
It's just too easy to consider Kevin
Spacey a pompous ass when you watch him in his vanity
project, the life story of Bobby Darin, "Beyond the
Sea." Spacey hires a young actor to play Darin at
about the age of ten but decides to perform the role
of the teenage and 20-something Darin himself. It's
laughable. He tries to make a joke of it by including
a comment on Darin playing himself in a movie at an
older age but it just doesn't work. Until the last
half of this film, Spacey looks like a fool. When
he woos young Kate Bosworth (who looks like a Jessica
Simpson clone) as Sandra Dee, he really looks silly.
Spacey has got to be 45 years old and Bosworth barely
looks 18.
For the first half of this film,
we question why there should even be a Bobby Darin
biopic. I was born in 1963 and I barely remember the
performer. I know he did "Mack the Knife," but I really
don't remember too much else about him. Spacey doesn't
clue you in on a whole lot either. For a long time
it appears that all that he and Darin had in common
is that they were both in love with their mothers.
And then there's the music. This
film runs two hours and a good 45 minutes of it is
Spacey singing Darin's tunes rather lamely. Why? Although
Spacey has a good enough voice for Karaoke night,
singing the songs himself here give us absolutely
no idea at all about what makes Darin's work so special.
Unlike the recent "Ray," we have no idea at all what
was so captivating about Darin's work and this film
gives us absolutely no idea. Spacey turns this piece
into a complete vanity project by insisting on singing
here and relying on the songs, which are nothing but
puff, to carry the film. They do not. Never at any
time in the film, after the first ten minutes, does
a single song by Darin mean anything here. Well, there's
his hippie protest song at the end, but that has more
to do with Darin's mindset and the story then it does
with showing us why his work deserves to be immortalized
in a biopic. If Spacey didn't sing 12 damn songs in
the film, this one at the end might actually mean
something. Spacey is so enamoured with his own singing
that he actually includes his vocal rendition of another
song by Darin in a scene that runs with the end credits.
There is a lot of drama and a good
story in the last third of the film but Spacey has
bored us so deeply by this point that we almost feel
manipulated into feeling something towards the end
of this film. Bob Hoskins and Caroline Aaron do some
amazing work during this part of the film and it is
their talent that makes this film worth seeing at
all. It is only because they care about Spacey/Darin
that we give a damn at all. If Darin was the egotistical
asshole that Spacey makes him out to be here, then
he should just fade into obscurity.
What's next? A biopic about "Howard
Jones?"
Notes:
Also with John Goodman, Brenda Blethen,
Greta Scacchi, Peter Cincotti and William Ulrich,
who does make quite an impression as Darin as a child.
Spacey is credited as a co-writer
and a producer. The film has over 12 producers credited.
Spacey is nominated for a Golden
Globe for his performance here.
The film ends with the dedication
"For Mother."
At times Bruce Willis, Johnny Depp,
Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio were considered for
this film before Spacey took over.
At times Paul Schrader and Barry
Levinson were attached to direct.
Songs by Deep Purple and The Rolling
Stones are used to symbolize the changing sound of
music in the late 60's/early 70's.
Viewed in Austin on the day it opened
here, December 29th, 2004.
