In the film Beyond the Sea, Spacey plays Bobby Darin, from the age of 18 until his death at 37 years old.  Ironically, the film begins as a biopic within a biopic, with Spacey as Darin making a biopic about his own life.  The people around Darin keep telling him that at 37, he’s now too old to be playing his younger self.  This scene is amusing, considering at age 43, Spacey is also too old to be playing the younger Darin.

            The most difficult and disorienting aspect of watching Beyond the Sea is that Spacey is, and looks, like a middle-aged man, but plays a twenty-something Darin throughout the film.  When Darin was 24 he married an 18-year old Sandra Dee, an age difference that no one would raise an eyebrow at.  But Spacey is 24 years older than Kate Bosworth, who plays Sandra Dee.  That kind of age gap gives a radically different view of their marriage in the movie than was true to real life.

Another aspect of Beyond the Sea that makes it difficult to watch is its uncertainty about its place as a musical or drama, so it awkwardly tries to be both.  The majority of the songs are played in realistic settings where Darin sang, like bars and nightclubs.  Then out of nowhere, Darin is singing and dancing with his neighborhood in the streets, or while following future wife Sandra Dee around a movie set.  The result is a really bazaar format that makes it difficult to get involved in the story.

            There are always facts included or excluded in biographies of a person to make them seem more interesting, likeable, or to dramatize the situation.  But to leave out an entire person, especially someone as significant as a wife is inexcusable.  I got the impression from the film that despite their troubles, Sandra Dee and Darin stayed together until his death at 37.  Even at the very end, there is a factoid that appears onscreen, telling the audience that Sandra Dee never remarried because she still loves Darin.  The fact that Darin and Sandra Dee divorced six years before his death, and he remarried, is completely glossed over.  This inconsistency may have helped Spacey keep the story simple, but makes the film inaccurate and is unfair to the people involved, as well as cheats the audience.

            What impressed me about Beyond the Sea is Spacey’s vocal talents, and how much he sounds like Darin. Spacey can sing and dance quite well, and actually considered quitting acting to go back to his musical roots, and become a singer/songwriter.  Spacey sings all the songs himself in the film.

            Beyond the Sea lacks the consistency and accuracy that make a good biopic.  It is an impressive showcase of Spacey’s many talents and superb acting, but that, not the life of Bobby Darin, seems to be the movie’s focus.