Beyond The Sea (2004)

Brilliant, simply brilliant!! In the true tradition of the old style musicals this film unfolded. The film started off with Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey) singing one of his most well known and loved hits. As we were enjoying the song all of a sudden it came to an abrupt halt, as Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey) spies a child lurking about in the backstage curtains. It becomes clear that this is the young Bobby and that we are on a film set, watching a film of the singer being made.

The young Bobby played very well by William Ullrich then takes Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey) on a journey as to how he thinks the film should be made.

It was then revealed that Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey) had rheumatic fever as a child and was not expected to live past the age of 10 years. But Bobby’s mother had other ideas. Polly Cassotto brilliantly played by (Brenda Blethyn) encouraged the boy to learn piano and teach him all the old tricks from her vaudeville days

Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey) is making his own bio pic and staring as himself, and a reporter turned up to ask him, are you not too old to play your self. Some critics had said that Spacey was too old to play the role of Bobby Darin. I don’t think that is the case at all. Spacey did a wonderful job doing his own singing for the movie.

A solid supporting cast in the form of John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi, Caroline Aaron and Kate Bosworth as wife Sandra Dee.

This film was well done and well sung! All the standard Darin songs were there. Mack the knife, Splish Splash, Dream Lover, Beyond the Sea, Lazy River, Artifical Flowers.

Kate Bosworth as wife Sandra Dee played her part very well. As did Brenda Blethyn as mother Polly Cassotto.

A truly magical moment of movie history that I am so glad I finally got to see. I am a great fan of biopic’s and have seen a great many over the years. I hope that film makers continue to make films like this which are entertaining and informative at the same time as I was not aware of the rheumatic fever that Bobby Darin suffered from and weakened his heart, which lead to his ultimate demise.

by Narf

Tags : Beyond The Sea, Bobby Darin, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Sandra Dee, Mack The Knife