Beyond the Sea (2004)

Here's a movie you probably never expected to see me review on here, and it definitely wasn't one I ever expected to, especially since, if romcoms are my least favorite type of genre, then musicals are a close second. I don't mind singing and dancing in animated movies but stuff like West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, and such don't do it for me at all. So, if that's the case, why am I reviewing Beyond the Sea? The same reason I reviewed Someone Like You: my friend Jeff Burr gave me the DVD some time ago and I figured I might as well do something with it. I've known about it since I was seventeen, though not because of its release in theaters but, rather, its DVD release the following spring, as I sometimes saw advertisements for it in the mornings before I went to school. Those commercials, of course, were full of nothing but glowing reviews about it, particularly for Kevin Spacey's performance, but I didn't pay much heed to them, as I had many other things on my mind (I'm also ashamed to say this, but I really didn't know who Spacey was at the time; I knew of many of the movies he was in, but not him specifically). The next time I heard about Beyond the Sea was on E!'s 101 Biggest Celebrity Oops, specifically in their section about actors trying to play against type, where they also took a jab at Jim Carrey in The Majestic, among others. There, they talked about how Spacey was too old to have played Bobby Darin, calling the movie cringe-inducing, particularly one person who said they saw it as an in-flight movie. Again, I didn't think much of what they said, as I hadn't seen the movie and also because I was only mildly aware of who Bobby Darin was anyway (I'm not much of a music person). And that's how I felt about Beyond the Sea until 2017, when I got the DVD from Jeff.

Like everything I ever inherit from Jeff, I decided to give it a chance and watch it at least once. Fortunately, unlike a lot of the stuff he gave me during that particular meetup, Beyond the Sea wasn't so bad that I wanted to blow my brains out while watching it (seriously, some of the stuff he gave me that time really was especially horrendous). What did make watching it rather weird, though, was that it was right around the time Spacey's reputation was unraveling with all those allegations of him sexually assaulting a bunch of men and him coming out as gay on Twitter in order to mitigate the fallout. Regardless, it didn't change the fact that I could tell this was a movie he obviously had a lot of deep passion for and put everything he had in him into it. He not only played Bobby Darin but also did all of the singing and even directed the movie, benefiting greatly from a stellar cast that included Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, and Bob Hoskins. Not only are the performances good but you can also tell the movie had a healthy budget about it ($25 million), the song and dance numbers and choreography are top notch, and it's often as pleasing to the eye as it is to the ear. But, it does sometimes swing into vanity project territory, one that tends to gloss over darker aspects of the subjects' real lives, and, while I do appreciate how they tried to make it more than just another biopic, the way the story is told and structured is more complicated than necessary.

The story does portray many important aspects of Bobby Darin's life: his childhood as a sickly kid who suffered from bouts of rheumatic fever and wasn't expected to live past fifteen; his musical inspiration and determination to get out of the Bronx and become a bigger star than Frank Sinatra; his struggling period before hitting it big as a teen idol with Splish Splash; his decision to expand his horizons beyond rock and roll, leading to his big band and nightclub hits; his meeting and romancing Sandra Dee while shooting a movie with her in Italy; their marriage and the issues that came with it; his realizing his dream of singing at the Copacabana; his endorsement of Robert Kennedy in the late 60's and becoming out of touch with the latest music trends; the stunning revelation that the woman he thought was his mother was actually his grandmother and his "sister" actually being his mother; and his successful comeback before his untimely death at 37. But, at the same time, you have this sort of wraparound of Darin rehearsing and filming a movie about his entire life story, one where he's going to play himself, during which he meets his younger self, a kid initially thought to be an actor playing him as a young boy. The two of them are often seen observing major moments in the story, his younger self commenting on the way he's presenting and dramatizing things, and in the end, he tells him what the true conclusion and meaning of the story is.

A biopic about Bobby Darin had been planned since the mid-80's, initiated by director Barry Levinson as a co-production between Warner Bros. and his own production company, Baltimore Pictures. It very quickly got caught up in development hell and stayed there through the 80's and 90's, with actors like Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp being considered to play Darin, and information from Dodd Darin's book, Dream Lovers, being incorporated into the screenplay, which went through a good number of drafts. Kevin Spacey first became involved in 1994 when he originally lobbied to play Darin, but Levinson and company felt he was too old for the role (which is odd, since he was in his mid-30's at the time and would have been far more appropriate than when he finally would do the role). Eventually, Levinson left the project and Spacey acquired the film rights himself from Warner Bros. He also got in good with Darin's family and his former manage, Steve Blauner, to the point where he got them to agree to allow him to do the singing himself. Ultimately, the film would become almost entirely his, as he would end up starring, directing, producing, and co-writing it, without taking payment for any of it, as it was that much of a passion project. It also wasn't the first time Spacey had directed, as he'd done the 1996 crime thriller, Albino Alligator, which starred Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, and Gary Sinise (among a good amount of other notable actors), but, more than likely, given the circumstances, it will be the last.

When you're first introduced to Spacey as Bobby Darin, he's in rehearsal for a movie where he's going to play himself, doing a scene where he performs Mack the Knife in a club full of people, when he suddenly stops everything, says he wants to start over, and makes it known they're going to do so again and again and again until they've got it down, much to the frustration of the exhausted musicians and people in the audience. It makes for a terrific first impression, as you immediately know that Darin is a driven perfectionist who's also more than a little egocentric and arrogant, before then getting into where it all came from. His mother, Polly Cassotto, a former vaudeville singer, instilled a love of music in him that helped him get through the pain of his childhood, which was wrought with bad bouts of rheumatic fever, and she also instilled in him the drive and determination to make it out of the Bronx and become an even bigger star than Frank Sinatra. Getting Steve Blauner as his manager, Dick Behrke as his musical arranger, David Gershenson as his publicist, and his brother-in-law, Charlie Maffia, as his valet, he heads to Manhattan, playing any nightclub that would have him, though he becomes frustrated with the band he plays with and the lousy reception he gets from the audience. Things start to change when he ditches his birth-name, Walden Robert Cassotto, and officially becomes Bobby Darin, as well as starts wearing a hairpiece at Blauner's insistence. He has his first major hit with the teen crowd when he does Splish Splash on American Bandstand, but that does little more than whet his appetite, as he becomes determined to appeal to more than just teenagers. As he tells his record producer following his appearance on Bandstand, "I want it all! I want the major leagues. I want nightclubs, I want Vegas, movies, TV. This album will make it happen all fast. Faster than you can ever imagine." And when said producer, Ahmet Ertegun, tries to tell him he's already a star, Darin harasses a delivery boy, asking him if he recognizes him at all, and after he says he doesn't, Darin tells Ahmet, "When the delivery guy knows me, then I'm a star."

Although his life takes a hit with the death of his mother, Darin's success does begin to skyrocket, as he records popular songs like Artificial Flowers and Mack the Knife, makes more and more appearances on live television, wins Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Album, and appears on This is Your Life. After that, he switches to making movies and is cast in Come September, where he meets Sandra Dee while filming in Italy. Though their initial interaction is

rather antagonistic (when she calls him out on his unprofessional behavior, he responds with, "Let me tell you something, blondie, you're not exactly Audrey Hepburn,"), she becomes his next goal, as he tells Charlie she's the woman he's going to marry. To do so, he first decides to butter up Sandra's overbearing mother, Mary Douvan, by sending her roses, telling Charlie, "You always make sure the mama dog likes you before you go near her puppy," before charming Sandy herself. He eventually talks Mary into allowing him to take Sandy out for

publicity, which they quickly ditch in order to go on an actual date. It's during this section where you can really see Darin's charisma, as he playfully suggests Sandy's been spying on him when she suggests he start going to bed early without any proof that he doesn't, charms Mary by suggesting she and Sandy are more like sisters (a ruse even he doesn't buy into) before smooth-talking her into allowing him to do something with her for publicity, and when Charlie suggests Mary's just trying to keep her daughter

away from heart-breakers like him, he playfully says, "Mama's job just got a whole lot tougher." During their actual date, when the two of them are alone, Darin responds to Sandy's making sure he's paying attention while she talks by tossing his ice-cream cone over his shoulder and into a fountain, declaring, "I'm paying attention, trust me," before whispering to her, "You know, I was right about you... you're gonna to be easy to love." He's able to get her to defy her mother and elope with him, and when they return to the United States to their new

home and he finds her to be a nervous, hysterical wreck over how quickly things have proceeded, he does something to ease her nerves. He places a sword they used in their publicity stunt in the middle of their bed, telling her, "My mama used to tell me a story when I was a kid that in the Middle Ages, one of the knights in King Arthur's court, he laid down his sword between himself and Guinevere, and he promised that he would never cross over to the other side... I am laying down this sword between us. That's my side of the bed, and that's yours, and

I will never cross over. Ever. I don't care if we don't touch for a thousand nights. Only you can cross over to my side. Only you." This act of chivalrous understanding quickly wins her over and the two of them find quickly no need for the sword once they get into bed together. 

Darin's life only continues to improve, as he gets to fulfill his and his mother's lifelong dream of him performing at the Copacabana, news that makes him absolutely ecstatic. However, he has to get around the fact that the place's owner, Jules Podell, refuses to let comedian George Kirby open for him because he's African-American. Once again, he uses his slickness to get around this obstacle; when Podell tells him it's policy, Darin responds, "Frankly, to hell with policy. This is 1960, not

1860... I respect that this is your club, I really do, but if you don't let George Kirby open for me, I can't be responsible for the consequences." Podell takes this as a threat but Darin says he's merely cautioning him, asking if he's ever heard of a sit-in, elaborating, "Well, it's a very popular form of protest today. It's where members of the black community, and the white community, actually, all communities, they come together to an establishment that they feel is being... well, frankly,

unfair to their brothers and sisters, and the media shows up, they hold hands, and they... they sit, sometimes for days... They sit, and they sing. You know, songs like, what's the, oh, We Shall Overcome." Podell asks, "Overcome? Overcome what," and Darin, looking at a black waiter in the room, answers, "Policy, Mr. Podell. Outdated policy." And with that, George Kirby is allowed to open for Darin, who knocks it out of the park when he performs Hello, Young Lovers and That's All, as well as dedicates them to his late mother and to

Sandy, who's sitting in the audience. However, there's one sad aspect to this (aside from the reinforcement of Darin's constant ill health when you see him taking some meds in his dressing room), and that's the fact that his "sister," Nina, causes a bit of a scene when she's forced to sit in the back and is also hurt when he doesn't mention her in his dedication. Darin and Sandra's son, Dodd, is born afterward, and both of them continue working on movies, the former appearing in Captain Newman, M.D.

Problems soon arise in their marriage when, while Sandy visits Darin on the set of his new movie, she learns that Blauner has booked him on another tour. Not only is she aggravated because she hasn't finished filming her own movie but she also doesn't want to bring Dodd on the road, nor does she want him to be virtually raised by the nanny. She does give in and join him on the road, which is when Darin starts to notice she's drinking quite a lot. She then confronts him about not being able to be

alone with him where it's really just the two of them. Darin tells her that, to him, Blauner and the other members of his posse are like his family and insinuates that she could simply give up her career for the sake of his, commenting, "Kissing Troy Donahue is not acting." Like always, he manages to charm and seduce her, but just when they're about to get frisky, Blauner bursts in to tell Darin he's been nominated for an Oscar for Captain Newman, M.D. Darin is, again, ecstatic, but it

doesn't last when Melvyn Douglas wins the award instead. The two of them come home, with Darin in an angry, bitter rage as mocks Douglas' performance, and when Sandy says they gave him a sympathy vote because he was "dying" (even though Douglas ultimately lived to 1981), Darin snarls, "He's dying?! I'm the one dying! Way before he was dying, I was dying! Where's my sympathy?" He goes on to rant about how Douglas' Hollywood friends voted against him and even starts to take it out on Sandy, mentioning how

Warren Beatty was there with Leslie Caron, a Best Actress nominee, while he's there with "Gidget," adding, "Melvyn Douglas is married to a Congresswoman and I'm married to Tammy." He goes on to talk about going back on the road, saying that performing in the nightclubs is real, whereas movies are fake. Her commenting that his toupee is on crooked, something she's gotten into a habit of doing, pushes him over the edge and their fight boils over, with each of them packing their suitcases and trying to leave, culminating

in Sandy driving off while Darin, unable to get his own car to start, angrily smashes it up with a golf-club. He collapses in front of the car in a defeated heap and when Sandy returns to him, he decides to take some time off from performing.

Darin spends the better part of the 60's as little more than a family man, watching Dodd grow up, seeing the music scene change, and becoming involved in politics, namely through his support of Robert Kennedy. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much to help his and Sandy's relationship, which is still full of resentment and bitterness. And then, Nina visits them and drops a complete bombshell on him: she's actually his mother, while Polly Cassotto was his grandmother. Though Nina tells

him this because she knows it would have come out had he decided to truly enter politics, Darin is positively floored and has a bit of a breakdown. He smashes up everything in his living room's bar, including his records, removes his hairpiece, donates everything he didn't destroy to charity, and starts living by himself in a trailer overlooking California's Big Sur. He keeps up with current events, starts coming up with a new song that's appropriate for the times, and even writes something for Dodd,

only to become all the more disillusioned when he hears the live feed of Kennedy's assassination on the radio (in reality, Darin was actually present at the hotel when the senator was shot). He's happy when Charlie tracks him down and comes to see him, but shows him how broken he is when he says, "We've been lied to, Charlie. Government lies to us every day. There's no end to this war. The President lies to us. People we trust the most, they lie to us." Charlie tries to talk some sense into him, telling him he shouldn't be wasting time acting like

a hermit, and also suggests that Dodd may forget who he is if he does, but Darin is hung up on not knowing who his real father was, feeling he has no identity, not as Bobby Darin or even as Walden Robert Cassotto.

Regardless, he does start performing again, but his singing the solemn protest song, The Simple Song of Freedom, at the Copacabana doesn't go over well, as he's mocked by the audience and booed off the stage. Afterward, he gets into an argument with Blauner about it, saying the audience should, "Take me as I am, or I don't want them!", and when Blauner lists off all of the accolades he accumulated in a relatively short amount of time, Darin tells him he needs to find himself again.

Following that, he has an operation to replace his heart valves, though he doesn't believe it will last. Regardless, he feels pretty good afterward, making it to his 36th birthday, which he has a party and barbecue for, but isn't keen on getting back on the stage, until Sandy mentions that people "hear what they see," giving him an idea of how to win back his audience. Before he leaves for Vegas, he gives his son a present that he says no one else must ever know he has and which he mustn't open until after he's dead. All he tells him is that it's something he

wants him to have, assuring him, "You're gonna be just fine, if you're the man I think you are. You know, I had to fight my way out of the Bronx to make something of myself, but not nearly as hard as you're gonna have to fight to get out of Beverly Hills."

The notion of Darin's fragile health and his living far past what the doctors expected him to is reinforced throughout the movie, such as the moment where you see him taking his medication before he first performs at the Copacabana and, when he and Sandy are on the road, there's a moment where you see him using an oxygen tank in his dressing room. However, it truly starts to come to the fore during the film's latter half. During the montage of his time away from the

spotlight, Darin describes himself as, "A balding chart singer who hadn't had a hit in years, and who should be dead." When he goes into a seclusion, there's a moment where he's listening to his own heart with a stethoscope. And when Charlie visits him, they talk about Robert Kennedy and Charlie mentions how Kennedy didn't waste what little time he was given, insinuating that Darin is doing that with however many years he has left. It becomes symbolic when, before the revelation that he had surgery on his heart, he sees his younger self say, "My watch is

slowing down. I better get this fixed." The significance of the watch, which he's always worn while performing, comes in a flashback where we see the moment when Charlie gave it to him after hearing that another kid had told him his time was up. Charlie had told him to wear it when he was older and that he had to believe he would get older, before the film transitions back to show Darin post-surgery. And then, after the moment between him and his son, we get a moment with Darin in his dressing room at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas, where Charlie notes how ill he looks and

he admits he has blood poisoning, which is why he's arranged for them to leave early, as he needs to have another operation. Despite his ill health, Darin goes on with the show, although there's a moment in the middle of it when he has to go backstage for some oxygen before singing his final number.

Like he did at the Copacabana, he again sings the Simple Song of Freedom, but this time, he's able to get the audience on his side, particularly when he brings in a gospel choir and changes it from a sad, downbeat affair to a joyous call for peace and no more war. After the moment where he goes backstage and gets his oxygen, he announces he's going to be taking some time off from performing and takes the opportunity to introduce Nina as his true mother, having finally come to

terms with the revelation and realizing how much he means to her. He then closes out his final performance with The Curtain Falls, as we see his younger self taking the watch from the dressing room, Darin himself being rushed out to a car waiting to take him to the hospital, Nina resting by his side as he passes away, and Dodd opening the suitcase he gave him, finding it to be full of everything important to him, such as his Grammies, film reels, many different photographs, and the letter he was seen writing while in exile (it's actual contents are never revealed).

Speaking of young Bobby (William Ullrich), this would probably be as good of a time as any to finally to get into him. He first appears in the opening fantasy sequence during the rehearsal and preparations of the film on Darin's life story, describing himself as the one who knows him better than anybody. He further claims to actually be him rather than an actor hired to play him as a kid and makes the decision of where to begin the story, with the moment where he was first diagnosed with rheumatic fever as a child. In fact, young Bobby appears in several different guises throughout the story. Most traditionally, in the flashbacks to Darin's childhood, he really is William Robert Cassotto, as you and those "making" the movie would expect him to be, coming off as a frail boy who's doted on by his mother, is curious about his late father, and is inspired by his mother's interest in music, which becomes the most important thing in his life. During the film, young Bobby can occasionally be seen observing and commenting on the story as it's dramatized. Following a big elaborate dance number leading into older Bobby's leaving the Bronx to become a star, young Bobby notes how that wasn't how it actually happened, and is told by his older self, "Memories are like moonbeams; we do with them what we want." And as I've said, even when the segment depicting Darin's childhood is over, young Bobby still appears alongside his older self, such as during their mother's funeral, simultaneously confronting Polly Cassotto over Nina's revelation about his true parentage, and in the moments concerning the watch.

At the end of the movie, just as Darin is ready to wrap things up, young Bobby stops him, telling him the story doesn't end with his death, adding, "I'm the one who goes... Bobby Darin doesn't die." Reiterating the "memories are like moonbeams" line, young Bobby starts singing As Long as I'm Singing and the two of them launch into a duet and dance number that truly closes out the movie. Ultimately, I think young Bobby is supposed to represent the real person, who did indeed

pass away, while Kevin Spacey here represents the persona he created, an iconic figure whose music has lived on throughout the decades. This notion is hammered home when young Bobby tosses him his watch, telling him to hold onto it for him, and walks off into the dark, while Darin, after catching the watch, which morphs into a microphone between cuts, goes on singing in the midst of a club. And if that weren't enough, in the expected summaries of what became of the real people depicted in the film, we're told, "Walden Robert Cassotto wrote 163 songs and made 486 recordings. He has sold tens of millions of records. He died following heart surgery on December 20th, 1973. Bobby Darin is still swinging."

As I've mentioned, a common criticism with Beyond the Sea is that Kevin Spacey was too old to play Bobby Darin, particularly since Darin never made it to the age of 40. While I disagree with those who claim Spacey was miscast altogether, as I don't know how anyone could think that, the age issue is one I can concur with up to a point. In the early parts of the story, when Darin is supposed to be a teen idol before he moves on to his major successes singing in nightclubs, acting in movies,

and performing at the Copacabana, all of which happens when he's still in his 20's, it is very hard to swallow. They tried to make Spacey look younger with makeup appliances and the like, hiring Lord of the Rings makeup artist Peter King to that end (it also helps that Spacey does kind of look like Darin away), but he still comes off as a middle-aged guy during that section... a very youthful and good-looking middle-aged guy, but middle-aged, nonetheless. It's especially egregious in the scenes depicting Darin's courtship and marriage of Sandra Dee, as they

were only five years apart in real life, whereas Kate Bosworth is 24 years Spacey's junior; the sort of 1950's teenager outfit he often wears there doesn't help either. When it gets later in the story, with Darin entering his 30's, becoming more disillusioned, and also becoming more sickly, Spacey's age works more to his advantage, particularly when he grows that hippie-like mustache during his self-imposed exile, begins wearing glasses, and puts away the hairpiece. It also works fine during the fantasy sequences depicting the making of the biopic, as Darin's exact age there doesn't matter, but those sequences of his early professional life are a bit rough to watch.

I think the reason why Spacey wanted to play Darin so badly and why he managed to capture his essence, age issues aside, is a very deep and personal one. For one, Spacey was always a big fan of Darin to begin with but, more than that, it seems as though he could identify with him. Like Darin, Spacey proved himself to be a very talented and driven man throughout his career, one who would never rest on his laurels and always fought against being pigeonholed. Also, by all accounts,

Spacey was so determined and obsessed with the movie coming out right that it mirrored the way Darin was about his own work, often to the frustration of those around him. The mother connection is another commonality between them, as Spacey was very close to his own mother, who was the one who introduced him to Darin in the first place. She truly wanted him to make the movie, and although she, sadly, died before production began, she went knowing that her son was doing

it and even got to hear some of his recordings of Darin's songs. Before the credits roll at the end of the movie, a simple message comes up that reads, "For Mother." That, unfortunately, leads into another similarity between the two men: their lack of a true father figure. While Darin never knew who his father was, Spacey's father, apparently, was someone you wouldn't want to know: a sexually and physically abusive animal whose mistreatment likely led to Spacey becoming the perverted creep he was eventually revealed to be. And that's a final

connection: their dark sides. Granted, Spacey's dark side is much worse than Darin's ever was but still, we're talking about two immensely talented men with very serious demons, demons which probably drove them to do the amazing work they did, as well as contributed to their downfalls in their own ways.

Finally, let's talk about Spacey's singing. Some have referred to his decision to do all of the songs himself as very vain and self-indulgent, with Dodd Darin himself initially being unsure about it, saying the idea of anyone else singing his father's songs was sacrilegious. While I do agree with some of those sentiments and I'll elaborate later, when you watch the movie, it does become almost a moot point considering how awesome Spacey is at it. This wasn't the first time Spacey had ever sung in a movie but here, he truly gets an opportunity to show off and, in my opinion, knocks it out of the park. Whether he's crooning with Beyond the Sea and Dream Lover, being quite somber and solemn with The Simple Song of Freedom or The Curtain Falls, or doing a total showstopper with Mack the Knife, Lazy River, and As Long as I'm Singing, his voice is just so pleasing to the ear. I know I, for one, would give anything to be able to sing like that! And, as controversial an opinion as this is, I think I prefer Spacey's renditions of some of these songs better than the real Bobby Darin, so sue me!

The only other movie I know Kate Bosworth for is Superman Returns, where she played Lois Lane (again, alongside Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor), and I don't think she was particularly good there; on the other hand, I think she's quite good here as Sandra Dee, making me wonder where this energy was a couple of years later. Like a lot of people, when she first meets Bobby Darin on the set of Come September in Italy, Sandy is hardly taken with him due to his arrogance and rather abrasive attitude, referring to him as the most unprofessional person she's ever worked with. In her introductory scene, you also see that she's positively smothered by her controlling mother, Mary Douvan, who dictates her every move, from her acting choices down to the way she looks. But, despite their initial antagonism, Darin is taken with her and becomes determined to court her. During the sequence where he does so while singing Beyond the Sea, Sandy is initially annoyed and put off by this, but as it goes, he starts to win her over, and when he gets her to ditch a publicity stunt to go on a real date with him, she absolutely falls for him. They become engaged, which infuriates her mother, and the two of them get into an argument over it. After telling her mother that she loves Darin, not Rock Hudson, whom she would have preferred she marry, Sandy is literally forced to choose between Darin or her mother, and she goes with the former. The two of them elope and, upon returning to the United States, Darin takes her to their new home. However, that's when everything hits Sandy all at once and she has a breakdown, saying she and Darin don't even really know each other and fears she'll make him miserable. As before, Darin turns on the charm, adds a dose of true chivalry, and her fears instantly vanish.

The first hint of trouble for them comes when Sandy comes home to Darin and his posse and shows them that she's on the cover of Cosmopolitan, only for her to be disappointed to learn they're more interested in another magazine article on Darin himself. But, following his performance at the Copacabana and the birth of their son, real problems start to arise when, after filming Captain Newman, M.D., Sandy learns Darin's going on another tour, whereas she was hoping to have him home for a change. Also,

she complains about having to come on the road with him when she finishes her latest movie, as she doesn't want to bring baby Dodd along and doesn't want him to be virtually raised by the nanny they hired. As usual, she caves in to Darin when he charms her into coming along, but over the course of the tour, she starts to drink out of frustration from barely seeing him. When they're finally alone together in a hotel room, she talks about how they never have a chance to truly be by

themselves without his posse nearby, and also mentions how she can't constantly stop working to go on tour with him. Like before, Darin is able to charm her into submission, and the two of them are about to get intimate, when Steve Blauner bursts in to tell Darin he's been nominated for an Oscar; while Darin is ecstatic, Sandy groans, "Oh, Christ!" Things get really bad when Darin loses out on the award and becomes angry and paranoid over Melvyn Douglas getting it, feeling there's a conspiracy that saw to it that he lost. She calls him

out on how he's acting and he, in turn, takes shots at her choice of movies and image, as he's done before, but this time insinuating it contributed to his loss. Things erupt when he mentions going on tour again and she, in turn, tells him his hairpiece is on crooked. Both of them start packing their suitcases at the same time, with Sandy knocking Darin down by hitting him in the back with hers, and the two of them rush out to their individual cars, as Sandy hurls one cutting jab after another at him. Sandy drives off and Darin, unable to start his car, smashes it up, but once she returns and they've calmed down, they embrace, as Darin decides to take some time off from performing.

Darin's time at home and away from the spotlight doesn't do much to repair the rift between him and Sandy. In one scene, where he's hanging out with his friends in the living room, she, with a glass of booze in one hand and a cigarette in the other, criticizes him for singing the same songs every night, saying she doesn't do the same movies all the time. He tells her she does, and she angrily yells, "Uh, excuse me. Excuse me, but I think I know what people want in the movies nowadays,

okay?! You may be the expert in... in music, but I... I... have had years of movie experience!" He retorts, "Not bad, San. Would've been even better if you'd said it without the slur in your voice." Despite this blowup, Sandy is taken aback when Darin ups and leaves upon learning that Nina is really his mother, and when Charlie finds and visits him, he tells him she misses him, as does Dodd. When he eventually does come back and the two of them meet up at his 36th birthday party, they have a tender moment where Sandy does admit to

missing him, adding, "That's not why you left. It was more than that. I'm not what you want to be. I'm not an intellectual, I'm not as smart as you," but he says, "Nah, you're smart enough for ten of me." After smiling at the sight of Dodd as he sits by the pool, they talk about whether or not Darin will start performing again and she unintentionally gives him the inspiration for winning back the audience, saying, "People hear what they see." Sandy's last scene in the movie happens before Darin leaves for Las Vegas, as the two of them are slow-dancing outside by the pool. Sandy asks him what will become of her and he answers, "No matter what happens, baby, you'll always be Sandra Dee." (And, on a truly sad note, the real Sandra Dee died less than two months after the film was released.)

Bob Hoskins has a small but likable role as Charlie Maffia, Darin's step-brother who's really more of a father figure to him and, after Polly Cassotto, the one who believes in him more than anyone else. First seen in the opening sequence, where he's confident that Darin knows what he's talking about when he stops everything because he thinks he can do it better, he also chases off a reporter who questions whether or not Darin can play himself, angrily yelling it was the role he was born to play. In the actual narrative, we see Charlie was a fixture in Darin's life from practically the beginning, as he personally delivers the piano Polly uses to teach him about music. Later in the movie, you see another flashback where he called a kid's assertion that Darin's time was up "bullshit" and gave him the watch he went on to wear in his professional life. Though he's little more than Darin's valet when he sets out to find his fame and fortune, Charlie is always there to offer him encouragement, as well as try to reel in Nina, his wife, whenever she becomes overzealous and sticks her nose into Darin's business. Charlie's most significant scenes come during the third act, beginning when he visits Darin after he leaves upon learning that Nina is really his mother. Besides telling him that Sandy and everyone else misses him, as well as making him realize what Robert Kennedy was able to accomplish in the short time he was alive, he also tells him that he's always felt like he himself was his father. Advising him that Dodd may lose touch with him if he continues to live in seclusion like this, he goes on to say, "You may not know who your father is, but you got two mothers out of the deal and both of them are great. You ever thought how hard it's been for her not to be able to tell anybody that you're her son? You want to find yourself, get back on the stage. You are Bobby Darin." Charlie continues to stick with Darin when he goes back to performing and when he has the heart operation, looking after him when he comes out of the latter. But, before his big performance in Las Vegas, Darin tells Charlie in his dressing room that he has blood poisoning and needs to get to the hospital as soon as the show's over. Charlie tries to talk him out of performing altogether but Darin goes through with it, with Charlie helping him when he needs oxygen at one point during it. After the show, both he and Steve Blauner rush him to the hospital.

The most important person in Darin's early life was his "mother," Polly Cassotto (Brenda Blethyn), who absolutely doted on him. Her motto was, "You can never go wrong with the truth," which is what she tells the doctor when he diagnoses young Bobby with rheumatic fever, forcing him to admit that he probably won't live to see his fifteenth birthday. Horrified when she realizes Bobby overheard that, Polly tells him the doctor doesn't know what he's talking about, though it's obvious she's not exactly sticking to her own motto. Case in point, when she later tells Bobby about Sam Cossotto, his late "father," and is reluctant to admit he worked for a gangster, which Bobby himself already knows. When Charlie delivers a piano for Bobby, Polly, having been a former vaudeville singer, teaches him all about music and dancing, saying it always made her feel better and that she recognizes he has talent, telling him, "God wouldn't have made you suffer so much if he weren't going to make up for it later." This gives him the drive to power through his illness and learn all the moves and dances Polly has to teach him, and together, they come up with a plan for him to become a bigger entertainer than Frank Sinatra. In the end, Polly does see the beginning of Darin's rise to greatness when he performs Splish Splash on American Bandstand, which absolutely elates her, but not too long afterward, she passes away, pushing him to try harder to achieve his achieve the goal. Sure enough, he does, and when he performs at the Copacabana, he dedicates it to her. But later, he discovers she was really his grandmother, and while Nina tells Darin himself, Polly is seen talking with young Bobby about it at the same time, explaining to him the circumstances of Nina becoming pregnant with him when she was a teenager and that they kept the truth from him for his own good, given the stigma of the times.

By the time you get to her revelation, it makes sense why Darin's "sister," Nina (Caroline Aaron), often acted very motherly towards him, particularly when they were in Italy and he wasn't having the greatest luck in getting Sandra Dee's mother to agree to their engagement. When Mary walks out on Sandy and leaves her, Nina chases after her, trying to talk some sense into her, while Charlie tries to keep her from meddling. She also comes off as a rather tough broad, chewing out this bellhop whom she feels is manhandling their luggage when they arrive at the hotel in Italy and later becoming quite mouthy towards those hired to keep anyone from disturbing Darin before he performs at the Copacabana, saying they're treating her as if she were some overzealous fan. Above everything else, she's angry that she and Charlie are sitting way in the back, near the kitchen, whereas his entourage and Sandy are up front. Darin tries to explain that it's all up to Podell but she takes it as him being ashamed of them. Despite this, she does get into and enjoy his performance of Young Lovers, although she's clearly disappointed when she's not mentioned alongside Polly and Sandy in his dedication, to the point where she gets emotional and Charlie has to console her. Before the reveal, Nina kind of comes off as something of a bothersome, interfering, and slightly selfish woman, but then, you understand why she was so hurt by his "snubbing" her during the dedication. When she reveals the truth, she pours her heart out to him, saying she didn't want him to be seen as a "bastard" and that, after he was born, Polly moved the family to the Bronx where no one would know the truth. Beside his considering going into politics, Nina also tells him the truth because she can see he's going through a period of personal turmoil and she wants to be there for him. But, when he asks her, she refuses to tell him who his father really was, claiming she's not sure because of the many people she dated, though it's obvious that's a ruse. Initially, Darin is totally dumbstruck by this and becomes depressed, but after he talks with Charlie, he comes to terms with it and tells Nina that he knows why she did it. Before his last performance in Las Vegas, he finds a letter from Charlie saying he means the world to Nina and so, after his performance of The Simple Song of Freedom, he introduces her to the audience as his mother. Overjoyed, Nina is finally able to say that Darin is her son, but her joy is short-lived, as he's rushed to the hospital after the show and he dies with her by his side. (In reality, she took the identity of Darin's real father to the grave.)

While Darin may have ultimately gotten two good mothers in life, Sandra Dee only has one, Mary Douvan (Greta Scacchi), and she's very unlikable. More than overprotective, she's very controlling and smothering towards Sandy when Darin first meets them in Italy, dictating to her and obsessing over every little thing she does, from the way she looks to the expressions on her face and even who she can date. Darin senses her controlling nature and, when he decides to pursue Sandy, does everything he can to ingratiate himself to Mary, sending roses to her and complimenting her on her "youthfulness." While this does make her like him a little more (she even seems to try to come on to him, saying he needs an "older" woman), she's put off when he suggests she allow him to take Sandy out, saying she would never let her to do such a thing. Even when he says it's just for the sake of the movie's publicity, Mary is still hesitant, but he manages to get her to agree. But, when he and Sandy become engaged, Mary is furious and, getting Sandy alone in a room, shows just how awful of a person she is. Ordering her to sit as if she were a dog, Mary lays into Sandy, telling her, "You don't even know how to comb your hair without me! You don't know how to dress without me! You don't know how to walk, you don't know how to talk to people without me! I'm the one who brought you into this world. I created you! You'd fall apart in fifteen minutes without me... When the time is right, and you're ready, we will find a husband for you who is suitable!" She blows off Sandy's insisting that she loves Darin, calling him a loser and says she wishes she would've been paid more attention to Rock Hudson, adding, "He still would have been a better husband than that Bobby Darin," saying his name in a sneering, condescending manner. In the end, she literally makes her choose between them, saying, "Him or me?", and when she silently makes her decision, Mary storms off, never to be seen again.

The always welcome John Goodman has a small role as Steve "Boom Boom" Blauner, Darin's talent manager, who's dedicated to getting him work and having him be successful, even if his attitude and perfectionism does drive him nuts. This feeling can be summed up in the movie's opening: while Blauner is frustrated with how Darin insists on doing the opening routine again and again, when a member of the crew calls him an "arrogant asshole," Blauner snarls, "Listen, you prick, there are four people around here who can't be fired. You're not one of them!" To hammer the point home further, David Gershenson says, "He might be an asshole...", and then he, Blauner, and Dick Behrke all say, "...but he's our asshole!" Blauner is the one who tells Darin he should start wearing a hairpiece, as big stars like John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart wear them... and when that doesn't win him over, all he has to do is mention that Frank Sinatra does the same. After that, Blauner is able to get him into such venues as the bigger nightclubs, surprising him with the news that he's booked for the Copacabana, and suggests he take the role in Captain Newman, M.D. that leads to his Oscar nomination, all while still being a genuine friend for him, often hanging out with him and the boys at his house. But, like everything else in Darin's life, his relationship with Blauner becomes more complicated when he attempts to return to performing after his self-imposed exile. Following his bombing at the Copacabana, they get into an argument about his performance, Blauner telling him the audience booed him off the stage because they didn't want to see him singing a solemn, depressing protest song. Reaching the end of his rope when Darin says the audience should take him as he is, he tells him, "Bobby, in seven years you made ten films, won two Grammies, had seven top ten singles, got nominated for an Academy Award... what the hell more do you want?" Darin says he needs to find himself again and Blauner walks out, telling him, "Everybody else seems to know who you are, but you keep looking. When you find yourself, gimme a call, and we'll see where we are." Blauner doesn't completely leave Darin's life, as he's present when he celebrates his 36th birthday, but when Darin asks him to book him into another gig in Vegas, he laughs at him, adamant that he doesn't want him going back there for fear he'll embarrass himself again, but Darin convinces him to do so. Blauner isn't there when the show opens, but he's called there when it shifts into high gear and witnesses Darin's comeback. Unfortunately, he also sees his downfall, as he and Charlie together take him to the hospital following the show.

The film's budget was around $25 million, which was a fairly modest one for the time, but Kevin Spacey and company managed to get everything out of it they could in terms of the visuals. Even though it's a biopic about an American entertainer, Beyond the Sea was actually shot mostly in Europe, specifically in Germany and England, mainly on sound stages at Babelsberg Studios in the former and Pinewood Studios in the latter. There, they were able to create some remarkable and authentic sets, like the backlot area

that serves as the setting of the Bronx and the streets of Manhattan in the 1940's, (makes me think of how well Peter Jackson replicated Depression-era New York in New Zealand for his version of King Kong), the TV studio and stage where Bobby Darin performs on American Bandstand, the various nightclubs he performs at throughout his career (the most spectacular of which are the interiors of the Copacabana and the Flamingo Hotel), and the nice, large, elegant house he and Sandra Dee move into after their marriage.

However, in my opinion, the movie's loveliest visuals are during the section where Darin and Sandy meet while filming Come September in Italy. Even though none of it was actually filmed in Italy, as it's either the English or German countryside, it's still gorgeous to look at, with the beautiful trees, bright sunshine, and rich color palette, and it's complimented by the sets meant to simulate the streets and back-alleys of the city, as well as the inside courtyard of the church where

Darin and Sandy share their first kiss and dance. And speaking of great location work, when Darin goes into exile and starts living by the Big Sur, what you're actually seeing is Lulworth Cove in Dorset, which is a great stand-in and a knockout all its own.

Speaking of a color palette, this is an early example of that trend in the 2000's where filmmakers really started to get into digital color-timing with the looks of their movies, and while I'm usually not a fan of that look, as I feel it comes off like you're watching raw dailies and workprints, I think it works here. They manage to use the color to properly convey the feeling of any particular scene, be it the blue-white look of the opening scenes in the studio and when Darin and his group are pounding the pavement in Manhattan; the rich

colors when he's performing in the television studio and during the section in Italy (there, the costumes stand out just as much as the surroundings); the mixture of low lighting and bright spotlights, along with somewhat duller and less vibrant colors, for when Darin is performing in the nightclubs; the nice, comfortable feeling of the inside of their home' and the murky, de-saturated feel to the scenes dealing with the sickness of Darin's childhood, his mother's funeral, and the

scene between him and Dodd before he departs for his final performance. Appropriately, there also scenes filmed in black-and-white, such as those that lean more on the white side when he appears on television and the starker type when he's performing Mack the Knife following his mother's funeral.

There are a handful of dance sequences, both fantasy and reality-based, throughout the film and they're just as impressive as the music and songs in terms of their scope, choreography, and the way they're filmed. The first one occurs in the flashback to Darin's childhood, when Polly first introduces him to music, tickling the ivories with Lazy River, which he joins her in playing. You then see Charlie and Nina dancing to the music outside in the street, and after some cuts, they're joined by some more couples doing the same. As the montage goes and

Darin tells us about the plan he and his mother came up with, the street becomes totally filled with dancers, doing all sorts of moves like twirls, lifts, and the like. Polly herself leads the dancers when she tells young Bobby what it takes to be successful, doing a slide when she says, "You gotta have... it!", and the kid himself gets in on the act, reacting to her advice in a theatrical fashion. When she tells him he's going to be bigger than Sinatra, he gets down on his knees, does jazz-hands, and exclaims, "I'd settle for a little Jolson, Mama!

Mama! Mama!" It then transitions from the kid into Kevin Spacey (a shot that's one of a handful of nicely subtle visual effects moments), who continues singing Lazy River while backpedaling into the mass of dancers, many of whom are now wearing more colorful clothes, and joining them in their moves. All the while, Charlie, Polly, and Nina watch from the back of a truck, as all the dancers, except Darin, freeze and he moves backwards through them, stands on the sidewalk, makes a move, and then walks through them as they continue on dancing.

Charlie tosses him a suitcase, which he catches, and he starts up the street, with someone else tossing him a hat, which he puts on his head. When the songs ends, everyone waves and cheers at him.

Darin's serenading Sandra Dee with Beyond the Sea starts out similarly, with him, dressed in a banana yellow suit, singing while watching and appearing wherever she is. He shows up while she's having her makeup done, pruning some topiary nearby, behind her with an accordion during a photo shoot with her and her mother, and as a waiter, bringing them a glass of wine and a flower, as they're having lunch. The people who are dancing behind them aren't there just for show, as Darin, like before, backpedals into them while they

transition from slow-dancing to this elaborate number, leading into a massive crane-in towards them, with Darin framed in-between two fountains. As Sandra watches, he does some twirls, and she starts walking amid the dancers, only to be caught by Darin, who does a dip with her. The two of them twirl, he twirls her by herself, and when she sits back down, you see him and a group of male dancers walk down a concrete path in the middle of the park, only to stop, do some more fancy

dancing, and then for Darin to slide across on his knees, take Sandy's hand, and dance with her again. Darin is then made the center of the dancers again, before the scene changes to him walking and singing on a small street lit by a single lamp, while Sandy watches him from a balcony. The number ends with Darin waltzing and hopping into a gondola boat with Sandy, interrupting a photo shoot, when her mother calls her away for an interview. He takes the gondolier's hat, wears it, and helps her out of the boat, and after they head off, Darin and the gondolier paddle around the pond, as he tells Charlie he's going to make Sandy his woman no matter what.

The next couple of comparable scenes happen during Darin's performances at various venues. The first is when he performs at the Copacabana and sings That's All, which starts out as one of his standard solo performances, but when he gets deeper into the song, he's joined by some very lovely female dancers, whom he dances with and sings in the center of. At one point, he puts the microphone on its stand, does that backwards move into the midst of the dancers and then behind them, getting himself a drink of water while they do

some more dancing, before grabbing another mic, vocalizing, "Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-do," and dancing among them. He grabs his main mic, vocalizes, "Da-da-da, dee-dee-dee-dee," and finishes the song with a grand finale that involves him dancing more exuberantly, doing fist-pumps, and spinning around, before finishing it with one final, "That's all." The other is when he sings the Simple Song of Freedom at the Flamingo Hotel, which, again, starts with him by himself, singing in a very solemn, sad manner. At first, no one's really paying

attention to him, but as he goes on, he starts to get their attention little by little, and then, he's joined by some female voices, with the house-lights revealing a line of gospel singers in red robes standing on some stairs in the back of the stage. He sings by himself for a little bit more, but then, things become more joyous, as the singers start clapping as they walk down and stand behind him. He manages to get the audience to join in the clapping and the singing, with a number of them even standing up

while doing so. When he finishes singing, the music continues on and the dancers keep clapping, as he takes a bow, waves to the audience, and rushes backstage to get some oxygen, before heading back out when the song officially ends.

There's one more fantasy sequence following the end of the main story, as both Darin and his younger self perform As Long as I'm Singing together. Telling Darin his story doesn't end with his death, young Bobby gets on the piano, plays some notes, and starts the song. His piano playing transitions into an orchestra as Darin himself joins in, walks over to young Bobby, and the two of them fist-bump. They sit next to each other on the edge of the stage, Darin elbows young Bobby, they mime drumming, and dance and

sing while walking among the tables and chairs in the theater, all while the spotlight follows them around. In-between shots, they transition into tuxedos, head down some steps, and dance among the sets used for the movie we've just watched, such as the exterior of the Copacabana, the outside of the buildings in the Bronx, and such. They're then joined by a big group of male dancers and dance back and forth in the middle of them, as they react and move to their steps. The dancers start dancing in lines in-between each other and both

Darin and young Bobby get in front of them, leading them into some more swinging, until they all file in behind Darin and he stops with a strong thrust (that was the image I remembered the most from those advertisements for the DVD I saw way back when). That's when young Bobby tosses him his watch before walking off into the dark, and when Darin catches it, it changes into a microphone, which he uses to finally close out the movie and the song, the camera slowly pulling back to reveal him on a stage in front of a studio audience that applauds him when he's done.

The actual songs that feature in the movie, whether they're Darin numbers performed by Kevin Spacey or not, are all performed well and fit perfectly with where they're placed in the story. Mack the Knife, the first song Bobby Darin performs in the movie, but which you don't hear in full until a little later, during the montage of his rise to success, starts out as a nice and smooth big band number but, as it goes on, it turns into a big, rollicking song with a nice finish that Spacey brings home effectively. Lazy River, as I described, starts out as a low-key,

vaudeville piece between young Bobby and Polly, but turns into an elaborate song and dance with Spacey singing both on the stage and with the dancers in the fantasy section of the flashback. Jump Down, Spin Around and Rock Island Line are a couple of songs Darin attempts when he's first starting out; while the former, which comes off as rather bland, doesn't last long before a heckler in the audience tells Darin he's no Sinatra, prompting him to stop it altogether, the other, a rockabilly sort of tune, is the first one he performs

on live television when he officially changes his name to Bobby Darin... but, because he doesn't know the lyrics, he has to improvise by writing them on his palms and fingers and reading them off while singing. Splish Splash, of course, is his first major hit, which he performs on American Bandstand and is just a fun, rock-and-roll tune that I've known the first lyrics of since childhood because my dad would often sing them aloud whenever he was in a good mood. Deciding not to

just stay with rock and roll, Darin next records the big band song, Artificial Flowers, all about giving your girl the real McCoy rather than those cheap things you can find at any convenience store. When Darin, Charlie, and Nina first arrive in Italy for him to appear in Come September, you hear a song called La Mer, which is basically a French version of Beyond the Sea, and a clue as to what song comes next in the film. Sure enough, we get the well-known English rendition when Darin's serenading Sandra Dee and, for me, Spacey's version is just as smooth and romantic as the actual one (which I first heard when I watched Finding Nemo; yes, I am a colossal dork, I know).

Out and away, my favorite song in the film is Spacey's rendition of Dream Lover, which plays over him and Sandy slipping away from the photographers in order to go on a real date and is one of those I think I prefer to the real Bobby Darin version. It just sounds beautiful and serene, truly like someone who's pining to find his true love. I'd go as far as to recommend listening to the entire thing on the movie's official soundtrack, as it's that lovely. A similarly beautiful song, Once Upon a Time, plays when Darin makes

the gesture of putting the sword in the middle of his and Sandy's bed and promises to never cross over onto her side as a way of easing her nervousness. It's a song about looking back at the innocence of young love and how things to tend to change as time goes on, particularly with the lyric, "Once upon a time, never comes again." The next several songs are all numbers Darin performs onstage. Young Lovers, his first one at the Copacabana, is another celebration of young love from the perspective of an older person, and you

can tell he's constantly alluding to his newfound relationship with Sandy; That's All, which he directly dedicates to Sandy, is a really energetic, swinging song about what you can offer your loved one and all that you ask for them in return; and Fabulous Places is about getting up and actually traveling to the exotic places you always dream about visiting. However, the latter, which plays over the montage of Darin's tour following his appearance in Captain Newman, M.D., has a bittersweet

connotation as it plays against Sandy's becoming bitter about not having any alone time with her husband and her starting to drink as a result. That leads into Charade, which plays over the nasty fight the two of them have when Darin loses out on the Oscar and is appropriate for how the veneer of their happy marriage has truly unraveled. Change, a more hippie-like song, then plays over the montage of Darin's taking time off and hanging out with his family, as the music scene starts to leave him behind and he enters politics because of the escalation of the Vietnam War, ending on another bitter argument between him and Sandy.

The Rolling Stones' Let It Loose plays when, following Nina's revelation that she's really his mother, Darin removes his hairpiece, donates everything he didn't smash to charity, and goes into self-exile. Following his bombing at the Copacabana when he decides to return to performing, the Deep Purple song Hush can be heard during his argument with Steve Blauner about what's happened to him. The song we get the most of is The Simple Song of Freedom, as we see Darin coming up with the lyrics and melody for it while he's living by the Big

Sur, and then singing it in a very forlorn manner at the Copacabana, which doesn't go over well with both the crowd and Podell. But, when he sings it as a big showstopper with a gospel choir at the Flamingo Hotel, it more than makes up for it. After that, he sings The Curtain Falls in a low-key, solemn manner, as he stands under a single spotlight on the stage. It signals how he's quickly approaching the end due to his blood poisoning, and it continues playing during the montage of him

being rushed to the hospital after the show, Nina being by his side when he passes away, and Dodd opening up the suitcase his father gave to him before he left for Las Vegas. But, the movie decides not to end on this somber note, as both Darin and young Bobby close it out with As Long as I'm Singing, which, as I said earlier, signifies how Bobby Darin the icon will never die, even if the real man did. And during the epilogue of facts concerning what became of the actual people, Spacey sings one more song, Some of These Days, where he sings about people missing him, although it's another swinging band number rather than a sad affair like The Curtain Falls.

In case you're wondering, though they're few and far between, there are instances of actual score without any singing. Obviously, with all the big song and dance numbers throughout the movie, these little moments tend to get overshadowed, and they're not much to write home about anyway, mainly consisting of soft, poignant music for scenes like Darin showing self-doubt about his own movie at the beginning, Nina's revelation about his real parentage, and his illness starting to catch up with him, forcing him to undergo surgery. There's also some really saccharine music that plays when he and Sandra Dee slip away from the press to go off by themselves, an Oriental-sounding sting when he gets the idea for his stage name from a "Mandarin" sign that has the first three letters burnt out, and, most effectively, an instrumental version of Once Upon a Time that plays during the couple's little dance together before he goes to Vegas for the last time, which does tug at the heartstrings, given the context of the song and the scene.

Okay, so now let's get into the aspects of this film I don't care for. The biggest is the structure of the narrative, which I think is too fantastical and complicated. Again, I can appreciate how Kevin Spacey wanted to make this more than just another dime-a-dozen biopic, but this framing device of Bobby Darin preparing to play himself in the film, meeting who he thinks is a child actor meant to play himself but instead is his actual young self, who comments on the way he's telling the story of his life, is needlessly heady.

It's made all the more complex when we see Darin talking with the people in his family and life, like Charlie, Nina, Steve Blauner, Dick Behrke, and David Gershenson, about where he should begin the movie, be it with him performing Mac the Knife at the Copacabana, when he became deathly ill late in his life, or when he got booed off the stage. The same goes for a moment early on when he's looking at some scenes on an editing machine with Charlie and young Bobby is doing the same with a scene filmed with his adult self. And finally, at the end of the movie, after we've seen Darin pass away in the

hospital, we go into the performance of As Long as I'm Singing with Darin and young Bobby, and while I enjoy what I think it's supposed to represent, as well as the decision to end it on a much happier note, it's still too much. Plus, it begs the question, if the main movie we've watched the one that was actually made during that fantasy sequence, what is the context of it transitioning to that final scene? Is that part of the movie too or is meant to be nothing more than a metaphorical representation of how the icon of Bobby Darin lives on? Then again, you could easily say the entire movie of Beyond the Sea can be seen as such. I'm probably thinking too hard about this but it feels like Spacey's vision for the film was more ambitious than necessary.

Another issue that I myself don't personally have with the movie, for the most part, but is one that others have brought up is how, while many of Darin's negative aspects and personality traits are explored, it glosses over the really dark parts of his life, such as how he developed a taste for orgies following his separation from Sandra Dee. It's no different from how a number of biopics tend to sugarcoat the person they're profiling, as it would make them too complex, possibly unlikable, and, therefore, difficult for an audience to care for (like,

for instance, how A Beautiful Mind portrays John Nash as a brilliant mathematician who also suffered from and overcame schizophrenia, but makes no mention of his gambling problems, his rumored homosexual encounters, his abandoning a woman whom he impregnated, and his decades-long divorce, among others). Spacey himself admitted that his portrayal of Darin wasn't as true to life as it could have been but defended his choice by saying he wanted the film to be, "An exuberant celebration of an entertainer in a way that would be uplifting for an audience." To that end, I think he made the right choices, and plus, how such decisions will affect you depends on how personally interested you are in the subject of the movie; as someone who's never had much of an opinion on Darin, this stuff doesn't mean much to me. Although, I think the way Spacey handled the ultimate fate of Darin and Sandy's relationship was clumsy, mainly because, if they're supposed to be separated by the end of the movie, I never picked up on it. After the

nasty arguments and his becoming a recluse for a period of time, they're suddenly together again at his birthday party and are apparently on friendly terms. I guess her dialogue about trying to cope with what's happened, mentioning that he left because she's not the woman he wanted her to be, and telling him that Dodd missed having him at home was meant as a signal that they were no longer together but if so, it went over my head, especially since you have them slow-dancing

outside not too long afterward and the information at the end which informs you that, even as she continued living in Los Angeles around the time of the movie, she never remarried and, "Is still in love with Bobby Darin." In fact, I always found it weird that she's nowhere to be seen during Darin's final performance or when he passes away, as that doesn't feel right at all.

Finally, this movie does, unavoidably, come off as an overblown vanity project at points, which tends to happen whenever an actor or filmmaker is allowed to indulge themselves in a pet project as much as Spacey was allowed to here. Obviously, having been given the opportunity to star, direct, produce, co-write, and sing all of the Bobby Darin songs himself, he had absolute free reign and, therefore, might have bitten off a bit more than he could chew with how elaborate the movie gets at times, mainly with that problematic

framing narrative. Plus, there's the fact that he's in virtually every... single... scene throughout the movie's almost two-hour running time, even during the section when they should have had a younger lookalike actor playing the part. In fact, Spacey appears to take a jab at all those people who were saying that about him, as during the opening, Darin is approached by a reporter who asks him if he's too old to play himself, only for Charlie to insist he was born to play it. Putting it, along with the reporter's noting just how unorthodox the project itself is, into context, it comes off as pretentious. Also, even though he proved he had

the talent to back it up, doing all of the singing may have been a bridge too far. As good as his singing voice is, by the end of the movie, you could start to think, "Okay, we get it, you can sing," as the sheer number of song and dance numbers starts to become egregious. At the very least, he could have played some of Darin's actual recordings and done the singing himself whenever he was recording or performing onstage. In the end, let me refer to what Roger Ebert said in his overall positive review:

"Kevin Spacey believes he was born to play Bobby Darin. I believe he was born to play more interesting characters." Speaking personally, while I described earlier how I believe I know why Spacey was determined to play Darin, and that I do think he did it very, very well, I can understand how this movie could come off as him thinking very highly of himself.

As Rotten Tomatoes noted in their consensus, whether Beyond the Sea is, "A fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project," is up to the individual viewer but I feel that the movie has far more pros than it does cons. Among them is a stellar cast of great actors who all do good work, with Kevin Spacey especially dominating with his dramatic and musical performances; a very appealing visual flair, from the color palette and art direction to the location work; well choreographed and filmed song and dance numbers peppered throughout the movie; a boffo soundtrack full of both Spacey's awesome covers of Bobby Darin's songs and some other nice tunes; and a feeling of joy and triumph that it leaves you with once it's concluded. However, it suffers from a complex, confusing, and choppy narrative structure, some loose ends in the story that aren't tied up in the most proficient manner, and, despite everything he does right, the sheer amount of indulgence Spacey is allowed here, not only playing Darin, even during sections of the movie when he shouldn't, but also doing all of the singing, producing, co-writing, and directing, can come off as very vain, particularly in how he confronts some of his critics in the very narrative, and could be distracting (and let's face it, the scandals and accusations surrounding Spacey can exacerbate that latter notion even more). In the end, if you take the movie for what it is, it can be very enjoyable, but if you're turned off by overblown pet projects or by Spacey himself nowadays, then you'd best steer clear of it.