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Mack, the knife, please

Beyond the Sea should have cut back on the reality - Kevin Spacey is too old to be Bobby Darin - for more of its swinging fantasy scenes.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published December 28, 2004

	[Photo: Lions Gate Films]
	Kate Bosworth, left, and Kevin Spacey play Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea, a film that uses reality and fantasy to tell the story of the late singer's life.

Kevin Spacey's devotion to bringing the life of Bobby Darin to the screen is admirable, his ability to imitate the pop star's voice and mannerisms even more so. Yet, Beyond the Sea never gets beyond its problems, most obviously Spacey in the role of a man nearly half the actor's age. Spacey's a fine song-and-dance man, but he isn't a magician.

It's as if the makeup crew got the nose, eyebrows and toupee right, then forgot to fill the wrinkles in between. If the project got off the ground a decade ago when Spacey made it his pet, age wouldn't have been an issue. Spacey acknowledges the situation in a fabricated, initially fascinating context: middle-aged Darin making a movie about his life, as Cole Porter fantasized with a stage review in De-Lovely, and Bob Fosse through both mediums in All That Jazz.

"Isn't he too old to play this part?" demands a reporter who invades the set, while Darin/Spacey deflates in the foreground. "He was born to play this part," Darin's brother (Bob Hoskins) roars back. Cut to a closeup of Darin, but it's really Spacey's expression declaring: "Well, yes. Yes, I was." The audacity of the movie-within-a-movie conceit, and of the actor-director-writer behind it, almost made me a believer.

Okay, Spacey suggests, if you want to pick nits, I'll give you plenty. The movie declares itself to be a hallucination, with the older Darin seeking advice from himself as a child (William Ullrich) on how to tell their story.

They begin with rheumatic fever that was expected to kill Darin before age 15, which leads to an imagined musical number on Bronx streets where his mother (Brenda Blethyn) decides the kid should be a star. Soon, the two Darins meet at her funeral, where the aisle leads to the stage of the Ed Sullivan Show. The blend of fantasy and reality is fascinating but abruptly discarded.

For a while, Beyond the Sea settles into standard biography: "And then I did this, and then I did that." Mack the Knife becomes a hit and Hollywood beckons, where Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth) awaits. The courtship becomes a full-blown production number of the title tune, with Darin and dancers popping up everywhere Dee goes. But each moment the film spends in reality weakens the impact of such fantasies. They don't fit the ultimately conventional structure of the film.

The celebrity marriage of Darin and Dee dominates the midsection with the usual personal and professional pressures. Dee's virginity is overcome with hokey gallantry, his Academy Award loss is blamed on being wedded to Gidget, and divorce is inevitable. Bosworth's innocent look is on target with Dee. Unfortunately, so is Bosworth's limited acting range.

Too bad Spacey can't romanticize meatier points of Darin's life as he does the music. The singer becoming passe when rock 'n' roll erupts is played for sheer pathos. Darin's involvement with civil rights is boiled down to demanding the black comedian George Kirby open his act at the Copacabana. His protest-song period is played as an artist's setback rather than a citizen's beliefs. A late revelation about Darin's heritage is mildly effective.

The high point of Beyond the Sea is Spacey's commitment to his character despite the obstacle of age. At times he channels the singer's spirit with the magical results that Jamie Foxx displays through Ray. Yet there's always a sense that the movie is a paean to the actor's talent more than his subject's. That Spacey is currently touring with an orchestra doing Darin's songs isn't surprising, although ego appears to figure as much into the decision as tribute.

A better way to handle the situation would be yet another rewrite that would cast Spacey as the Darin who didn't live to be. Cast an appropriately youthful unknown as the "real" Darin with Spacey playing mentor in hindsight. They could share musical fantasy sequences so Spacey can show off, when he isn't commenting on the singer's mistakes and successes. The desire to celebrate a personal hero isn't wrong, as long as celebrating yourself doesn't get in the way.

Beyond the Sea

Grade: B-

Director: Kevin Spacey

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi, Caroline Aaron

Screenplay: Kevin Spacey, Lewis Colick

Rating: PG-13; profanity, sensuality

Running time: 121 min.

[Last modified December 27, 2004, 14:20:06]