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Moviola > Films > Beyond the Sea
Beyond the Sea (12A) 118 mins"In the era of cool, he was the soundtrack." Kevin Spacey, who directed and co-wrote this film as well as starring in it, was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of entertainer Bobby Darin, the singer whom he believes he was born to play. After a bout of rheumatic fever when he was 7, Darin was not expected to live beyond 15. In fact he died at 37, the knowledge that he was living on borrowed time giving an edge of urgency to his perfectionism and ambition (he hoped to displace Frank Sinatra; of course he didn't). Like De-lovely, the movie is framed as a film within a film, in which an older Bobby Darin has conversations with his boyhood self. He begins in the Bronx: a fatherless boy learning music and dance from his mother. His career starts slowly, then "Splish Splash" puts him at the top of the charts, but he wants to be an entertainer, not a pop star, so he aims for the Copacabana; then it's on to the movies, where he meets and marries Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth). The supporting cast is terrific - Brenda Blethyn as Darin's mother, as well as Greta Scacchi, John Goodman and Bob Hoskins - but the real revelation is what a good singer Kevin Spacey is. "The movie possesses genuine feeling because Spacey is there with Darin during all the steps of this journey, up and down, all the way into death." Roger Ebert "When Spacey sings in profile with the prosthetic
nose prominent and turns on the phoney charm, his resemblance to Darin is
uncanny and the result is electrifying." Philip French
Last modified: 20-Jun-2008 |
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