Customer Reviews

Beyond the Sea

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(60)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Dear Kevin,

Thank you for reviving interest in one of the truly great singers of the 20th century. Bobby Darin was a teen idol during my teen years. Your movie, so lovingly made and beautifully acted, brought back so many wonderful memories that I sat there in the theater and cried with joy. An 8th grade sock hop where everyone was jumping to "Splish Splash," a dj-call in show where my current crush dedicated "Dream Lover" to me, and the reassuring and hopeful lyrics of "Beyond the Sea" that played in my mind during some of high school's darker moments are just some of the many memories your movie brought back. I'm sure anyone of my generation who was tuned in to music would love this movie. But my 21-year old daughter whom I coerced into going with me also loved it and we plan on scouring amazon for all the remastered CD's and DVD's on this great and talented man, Bobby Darin.

Speaking of great and talented, you have outdone yourself on this one. We all knew you were a fine actor, but to see you singing and dancing and obviously loving it and imitating Bobby's style and moves so uncannily well must have brought as much joy to you as it did to all of us fortunate enough to have seen this movie.

Seeing Bobby's love affair with Sandra Dee played out on the screen was great and brought back all those hours my friends and I spent pouring over issues of "Photoplay" to read anything about the super couple.

Even those not blessed with memories of Bobby from his heydey will fall in love with this movie for its songs alone. From the snappy "Mack the Knife" opening to the tearful closing, this movie is great and one I will definitely get on DVD when available.

Thank you, Kevin Spacey. This is your masterpiece.

Not only does Spacey do his own singing in this movie but he's got Darren's moves down as well. Obviously a labor of love, the movie is not without some flaws but Kevin Spacey is such a superb, riveting actor that you're likely to overlook any slight imperfections and be entranced by this movie. I've bought just about every book and video about Darren (including some rare video footage) and I'm awed at the way Spacey captures Darren's essence - his personality, his perfectionisn, the whole package. Clearly aware of the limited time available to him, Darren pushed himself to the brink of exhaustion and probably shortened his life even more - but oh, what he accomplished while he had the time!
Put this on your list of "must-see" holiday films, one that has to be see on the big screen. This one ought to catapalt Spacey's reputation even higher...and deservedly so.

I fell in love all over again not only with Bobby Darin but Kevin Spacey as well. I loved the movie and the music and I've tried to take my parents to see it for weeks now but it isn't showing anywhere! Why did they only open in a couple of Art Theaters? It's a shame the public isn't getting a chance to see this wonderful film about such a great performer. My dad never goes to movies but at age 76 he waits patiently for it to come to a theater near him. I've already requested to be notified when it is available on DVD. This is a must own for me. Thanks for all the love that went into making this movie. Kevin deserves an Oscar for his performance. I'd also like to track down a copy of the movie Captain Newman MD when Bobby Darin was nominated for an Oscar.

I saw this movie on opening weekend Saturday last night at the Loews Lincoln Square Cinemas in New York City. My reaction is that the film did have numerous flaws, and especially in the first half of the film it just didn't have "it", as character Polly described that intangible necessity of successful show business. The film meandered through several incoherent flash back/alternate reality episodes and several unnecesary musical extravaganza-type dance numbers which were just superfluous and out of place. However, I must say that the film got much better as it went along and the second half was very good. There are several beautiful scenes including the Darins' wedding night and the closing concert number when Bobby gives his farewell. The other good thing is that Kevin Spacey did all his own musical performances in this movie, and he sings and dances very well, especially his singing, which really does Bobby Darin justice. It's obvious from interviews Spacey has given that he is a big fan of Darin's, and his care and emotion for the legend are obvious in the film, which Spacey also directed and produced. Spacey had to get overseas financing for this film and it was shot in Germany, because Hollywood didn't think American audiences would pay to see a movie about a singer most people don't know about. I think that was a mistake, but instead of detracting from the quality of the film, I think like most European productions, the German production locations and crews were an advantage, and certainly the Las Vegas and California scenes look like they were shot in the U.S. (thanks to modern special effects). I recommend this movie. It's a loving tribute to Bobby Darin, a great singer and an entertainer who overcame impossible odds to succeed in show business. This movie also overcame long odds and Kevin Spacey must be given credit for persevering and finally getting it made.

My greatest memory of this film -- "Beyond the Sea", actor/director/producer Kevin Spacey's very personal and somewhat idiosyncratic look at the life of 1960s singer-actor Bobby Darin -- is how little the film used the immense talent available

In a cast that included Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman and Bob Hoskins, not a single actor in the group could be said to deliver anything more than an adequate performance. Spacey, who played the adult Darin and did his own singing in the movie, was a shell of the actor that distinguished himself in much better films like "The Shipping News", "American Beauty" and "L.A. Confidential". His singing was pretty good and, who knows, he may have been the epitome of Darin. But he wasn't much compared to what Kevin Spacey has been in the past.

Kate Bosworth has starred in a mix of films in her young life ranging from "Sin City" to "Blue Crush" to "Rules of Attraction", does creditable work as Mrs. Darin, Sandra Dee. Her wigs don't do much for the part -- the real Sandra Dee's hair looked more realistic than actresses hair does in the new century -- although she was always well-lighted and, therefore, filmed well. Unfortunately, her role was monodimensional and she delivered the goods as if a cardboard cutout with moveable lips and eyebrows.

The greatest disappointment for me was the tawdry and boring character John Goodman was asked to play. Here is an actor of stature that can adapt to many characterizations and adapted well to this one. However, either the role, the script of the direction drained Goodman of his trademark humor and individuality. I wasn't sure if his character was supposed to be English but it seemed so; he spoke with a minor accent and displayed all the reticence of an English gentleman.

As to the film itself, Spacey's production was too far fetched in the beginning to pull you into the story. In fact, it wasn't clear to me what was going in the movie's first 10 minutes. Was this a put on, this correspondence between characters in front of the audience? When the story got moving, it was pretty entertaining. Yet, if this movie was all there was to Darin's life, it made a pretty forgettable flick.

This movie seemed to me to play out more like a made for TV flick than a Hollywood production. Comparing it to "Walk the Line", the film about singer Johnny Cash made about the same time, was like comparing "Reagan" to "Nixon": One was made for cable with a limited budget & limited perspective and played out like a sequence of frames in the cartoon section. Yhe other was made for the big screen with corresponding acting budget, breadth in production values, and felicities in the script based on solid historical research.

"Beyond the Sea" can be an interesting view into the life of a 1960s pop icon if you can get by the cornball beginning and not think about why these great actors aren't being asked to be great actors. But under no circumstances will it ever be more than an average film.

Frankly, I did not appreciate Bobby Darin when he was alive. I was too young and didn't quite get what he was about. I had just started paying attention to him when he died in 1973. It is about time someone told his story. By all accounts, Kevin Spacey is a Bobby Darin devotee and it shows in this wonderful and fascinating movie.

First of all, I loved the way the story is told. It is not a narrative, although it talks about the singer's life. It is all about the music and how it came out of his strange youth and how his illness forced him to focus in on what mattered most to him because he never expected to live all that long. Rheumatic Fever as a child had damaged his heart. Of course, the smoking, drinking, and pills along they way didn't help him and he died at 37 after heart surgery.

The movie points out the structure of his life, his early show business inspiration, the rough beginnings, his successes, meeting, wooing, and marrying Sandra Dee. The movie is able to point out the problems in the marriage without becoming dark or making anyone into the bad guy. Again, the emphasis is on the music and the strains that puts on the human side of being human.

Kevin Spacey is clearly too old to play Bobby Darin, but so what? Who else is going to do it? He sure does a great job singing the songs and pulling off the spirit of the guy. To give you an idea of how the story is told, the opening scene has Darin and some guys walking through the kitchen of a club to the stage. Before he gets there some reporter says to Darin that he is too old to be playing himself. Darin then goes through the curtains as the announcer introduces him. Spacey begins singing a great version of "Mack the Knife".

However, somewhere in the middle of the song, when everything is going strong, he sees a little boy (obviously the young Bobby Darin) looking out through the curtains. Darin stops singing and it becomes apparent that this isn't a club, but a movie set for an autobiographical picture of Darin. You can see all the layers and perspectives being set up here. All of them continue to be used with a few more added throughout the film. Do not expect a simple narrative or a single voice being used in the film. There is a lot going on to tell this story and I loved the richness of the thing. For me, telling it this way gets to the truth of the man a lot more than a simple left to right telling of his life. Aren't most of us a lot of things trying to be something else again? Yet, there is a theme to each of us that all those perspectives enrich.

Great job. I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. A real treat.

I am not going to reiterate the details of this biopic.

The movie is fantastic and a true tribute to the great Bobby Darin.

William Ullrich amazed me -- that child is a prodigy!

Spacey did a great job -- I had no idea he could sing and dance so well.

Kate Bosworth did a great job in Dee's role.

I don't know what everybody's problem with John Goodman is.

And as for Spacey being "too old" -- while he certainly does not look like Darin in his 20's, he was convincing in the role -- he took on an artistic challenge and in my humble opinion, excelled.

This film is a labor of love and opens up the world of the great Bobby Darin to a whole new generation of fans.

Clearly, Kevin Spacey is a big time Bobby Darin fan, and this is his own personal homage to that great entertainer, as well as a showcase for himself. As director, producer, co-writer and star of this show, Kevin Spacey hits some highs, as well as some lows, in this bio pic.

First of all, not only is Kevin Spacey a great actor, he is also a terrific singer, as well as an agile and nimble dancer. I thought that, at times, especially when playing the older Bobby Darin, he had Bobby Darin down pat. Although the film tried to reconcile the issue of Kevin Spacey's age in the film through the cinematic contrivance of a film within a film, I just could not buy Kevin Spacey as the teenage Bobby Darin, no matter how hard I tried. For me, this was a glaring weakness through the film. Moreover, I found the use of flashbacks a little confusing at times, especially as the teenage Bobby Darin looked exactly like the older Bobby Darin.

While artistic license was certainly taken with Bobby Darin's life, I think that the film does a yeoman's job of hitting some of the highlights of his life. Born to a working class Bronx family in 1936, he was baptized Walden Robert Cassotto. He grew up believing that his grandmother, Polly (Brenda Blethyn), was his mother, not knowing that Nina (Caroline Aaron), the woman he knew as his sister, was really his mother. He would discover the truth much later on in life, and it would be hard for him to reconcile with the truth.

Bobby Darin contracted rheumatic fever as a young child, an illness that left his doctor concluding that he would not live past the age of fifteen. Growing up with the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, where every day could be his last, Bobby Darrin lived life to the fullest. Under the early tutelage of Polly, a former vaudevillian performer, he developed an affinity for song and dance. This would be the catalyst for all he would do and become in life. Nina's husband, Charlie Maffia (Bob Hoskins), would help the young Bobby, becoming a father figure and an important member of Darin's entourage, along with Steve Blauner (John Goodman), Darin's best friend turned manager.

Bobby Darin would hit the silver screen and star in a number of films, including one where he would meet his future wife, the teenage beauty, Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth). Their marriage was to begin with many hope and dreams, but they would find that the silver lining in their cloud of happiness would soon tarnish, as professional jealousy and unhappiness would begin to set in. With Bobby Darin's personal demons unleashed, as well as Sandra Dee's, it is little wonder that their marriage turned rocky. The film takes the viewer through the good, the bad, and the ugly in Darin's life until his death in 1973 at the age of thirty-seven, when his heart finally had enough.

Kevin Spacey dominates the film, as his is the central role. Moreover, he is simply a talented singer and dancer in his own right. I just found it to difficult to buy him as the teenage Bobby Darin and therein lies the rub. I think that he let his ego get the better of him in that respect. Still, his is a riveting performance. Kate Bosworth was decent in the role of Sandra Dee, although I did feel that she simply had too contemporary an edge. Bob Hoskins, as always, is simply terrific. He imbues the role of Charlie Maffia with an avuncular charm and warmth. Brenda Blethyn is wonderful as the down to earth and loving Polly. As Nina, Caroline Aaron is a bit histrionic, at times, but effective, nonetheless. Of course, asides from Kevin Spacey's magnetic performance, the music is simply terrific, especially if you loved Bobby Darin's songs.

Those who are fans of Bobby Darin will enjoy this movie. If one is not, deduct a star from my rating.

We all heard the critics. The theatre audiences stayed away in droves. Spacey is too old to play Bobby Darin. He doesn't look like Bobby Darin. His film was more of a personal ego trip than a bio-pic of Darin. To that I say hogwash. Spacey invests all his energy and the fibre of his being to convince us that Bobby Darin was a great American artist. Now I was too young to remember Bobby Darin in his prime except for a summer TV variety show he had around 1973. I'm also not an afficienado of nightclub performers but through Spacey's persuasive direction he has me convinced that Darin elevated this type of performing to an art form. Spacey also has gathered a talented group of supporting performers of whom Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee stood out for me. She gave depth to a woman who most people would dismiss as Gidget. It's my understanding that prior to her recent passing that she approved of this film. If any film deserves to find it's audience this one is it. Let's be grateful for home video and cable.

Passion often leads to risk, and for Hollywood, nothing is as risky as a big screen biography. Which hasn't swayed or even stopped investors from fueling such recent passion plays as Oliver Stone's Alexander and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, both larger-than-life portraits of pioneering pundits.

Then there's Beyond The Sea, actor-director Kevin Spacey's belated Valentine to crooner Bobby Darin, a small film featuring a passionate, larger-than-life performance by Spacey which transcends the customary Lifetime three-hanky flashback.

Talk about taking risks, pitching a film about a modestly successful singer-actor more remembered for marrying perpetual teen sweetheart Sandra Dee than for his catalog of songs or best supporting actor Oscar nomination. Anyone under 30 is probably more familiar with Steve Martin's spoof of Mack the Knife than Darin's chart topper.

And quite frankly, isn't Spacey, making his debut behind the camera, a tad too old to be playing a young Bobby Darin? Isn't that like asking audiences to not only suspend disbelief, but don rose colored glasses? How much petroleum jelly can they smear on a camera lens before you start losing all resemblance of shape?

Then Spacey does something brilliant. He knows he's too old to be playing a twenty-something playboy. So instead of bathing us in a cinematic fountain of youth, Spacey comes right out and admits that he's too old to be playing a young Bobby Darin. It's like acknowledging that hideous wart on the lunch lady's face. Once you come to terms with its existence, it's no longer an issue.

So when Beyond the Sea opens, we find Spacey, playing Darin, playing a younger version of himself in a film biography. Darin comes face-to-face with his inner-child, a kid who questions his motives, exposes his warts. When self-doubt begins to consume him, Darin asks a friend if he's too old to play the part. The friend reassures him that he's Bobby Darin, who better to play the part?

Once Spacey gets that out of his system, he becomes Darin, guiding us through an abbreviated tour of the performer's short albeit electric life. Darin has been a lifelong Spacey passion, and Spacey plays him passionately. From his humble beginnings to his meteoric rise in the recording and movie industries, Darin's life was ripe for drama and melodrama. Writers Lewis Colick and Spacey avoid painting Darin as a Patron Saint of Pop Singers, briefly but effectively exploring the inner demons that haunted many performers of his era.

Darin's rise to prominence, both as a singer and an actor, came just before the war in Vietnam and the radical shift in popular entertainment. Just as he was beginning to enjoy the security of success, his star started to fade. A pervasive heart condition and continued career rejection eventually took their toll on Darin, but not before making inroads back into the music business.

Spacey is quite engaging as Darin, affecting not only his mannerisms, but his stage presence. Once we accept Spacey as Darin, rarely do we see anyone else on the screen. Even Spacey's vocals resonate with authenticity, whether he's singing on stage or pursuing Sandra Dee through the streets of Rome. Of all the cinematic flourishes Spacey heaps on Beyond the Sea, incorporating Darin's songs into full-blown movie musical moments is my favorite.

Remember that moment in Living Out Loud, when Holly Hunter, dancing by herself at a nightclub, is joined by two women, and before you know it everyone on the floor is doing the exact same moves? That's what Spacey accomplishes in Beyond the Sea. Just when we think we're in for a stuffy biography about another Rat Pack-era singer, Beyond the Sea breaks out into song and dance.

Having Bobby Darin sing Beyond the Seas as he chases down and courts Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) while shooting a film in Rome not only rocks, it makes sense within the context of the film. Darin's life was filled with music, from his early childhood to his last breath, so Spacey and Colick wisely assimilate the songs as part of the overall milieu.

That spares us from having to sit through a bunch of unnecessary concert performances, allowing Spacey to pursue other avenues of Darin's life. Bosworth is stunning as Dee, young, pure, almost innocent, a facade that is quickly shattered. Spacey surrounds himself with a cast of sturdy players, including Bob Hoskins as Darin's brother-in-law, John Goodman as his agent, Brenda Blethyn as his mother, and an extremely sympathetic Caroline Aaron as his sister.

I'm not sure who the target audience for Beyond the Sea is. It's a vanity project, but it's not one done in vain. It's funny, engaging, gorgeous to look at and dishes enough information to give it weight.