One last review before I leave for HK, of which the thought of it has recently become an unnerving experience now cos for the first time, I'm gonna be on the plane on my own! Ok, my friend's gonna be with me but previously it was Dad who handled everything and now I'm on my own...

Ok, enough with the personal ramblings, where's the real stuff?

Anyway, back to the topic. I recently rented Beyond the Sea, the Bobby Darin biopic produced, written, directed and acted by Kevin Spacey. Frankly, it's the kind of movie which I find hard to put my finger to it. Sometimes it was really good, yet sometimes some moments just made u feel awkward, yet at the same time u appreciate the way it's being played out. All in all, a very unconventional movie.


The great Kevin Spacey crooning a tune from the great Bobby Darin.

Why unconventional? Remember those standard movies about the lives of famous people you've seen, like A Beautiful Mind, or Ali (wanted to add Ray and De-Lovely but I haven't watched them)? Well, throw that style of storytelling and movie-making away. Spcaey has created a Bobby Darin biopic that it part fantasy, part story-telling and part fact. The movie starts with a scene of Bobby Darin himself making a biopic of himself where he's interrupted by a boy, who is introduced as the actor who plays the young Bobby Darin. The boy complains that the movie (in the movie) has gotten off the wrong foot, which gets Darin interested in the boy's point of view. he then proceeds to tell young Darin his own life story, after which we move into a song and dance sequence (yup, quite like a musical like Newsies which features lively songs and dancing on the streets) introducing how Darin got his passion for singing and how he started off as a singer. From then on, it gradually turned into a conventional movie portrayal about his life - how he met, wooed and married Sandra Dee (played byKate Bosworth in here) , how his appetite for success adversely affected his family and social life, how he struggled to survive a heart condition which was supposed to have killed him by the time he was 15 years old. The boy appears once in a while in a nice metaphor-like manner throughout this part of the story, kind of like a mirror to the him, representing the side of him that was more desperate to stay alive, more innocent, less restrained and more confused. However, towards the end, the story pulls back to the "Darin-telling-the-story" mode and by this time, the boy is Darin and Darin is, well, Darin. The movie ends off with a sequence that clearly shows director Spcaey's admiration and adoration for the singer.

I guess the style of this movie could be described as a very theatrical way of story-telling. We have the use of metaphors such as the watch symbolizing Darin's short but eventful life, and basically toying with the whole idea that "it is not real". What do I mean by that? Since the beginning, Spacey, through the use of the interaction between the younger Darin and the older Darin, establishes the fact that what the audience is going to see is really a tribute to this man, a movie in honour of the great Bobby Darin, and hence there is no intention of having the audiences believe that the person on screen is the real deal, just like the experience of a theatre audience. In other words, it is not meant to be real, but it is meant for you to take a glimpse into the life of Darin and to marvel at his musical talents.

I really appreciate Spacey's direction of the material, but I guess it's just a little hard to digest. As I said, there are so many styles involved in this movie that I found it difficult to decide how to really approach it, which caused quite a bit of confusion on my part and marred my appreciation of the movie. However, I suppose it is also a clever arrangement on Spacey's part as he knows that as well as he can act and sing just like Bobby Darin, he is far too old to play him - Spacey was 44 when he played this role but Darin was in his 20s when he got famous, and died at the age of 37. As one reviewer from IMDB aptly puts it, "no matter how you tighten and pin Spacey's face, he is still a 44-year old man with all the lovely creases and bags time awards". Not that I knew a lot about Bobby Darin (except for the fact that he sang and wrote oldies such as Splish Splash, Dream Lover and Mack the Knife), but really, you can't escape the fact that Darin was supposed to be in his 20s when u see a matured Spacey on screen.

Which comes to my major grouse and compliment of this movie, however u wanna look at it - Why didn't Kevin Spacey make this movie 10 years ago when he was younger and closer to the real age of Bobby Darin? Kevin Spacey was excellent at playing Bobby Darin! I mean, I really dunno how the real Bobby Darin was like but Spacey really played it like a real singer from the 60s. And man, does he have the voice! Wonderful wonderful voice! Spacey decided not to lip-sync to the original songs but to use his own singing for the sake of the smooth flow of the movie, but to me, it was a good decision because it gave the whole thing a sense of sincerity and respect for the story (which, btw, only works when the singing is as good as the original, and it truly is in here)

Overall, the acting was good, including credible performances from actors such as John Goodman as the manager and Bob Hoskins as his supportive brother-in-lw (who is later revealed to be his step-father). But as a movie in a whole, it's not quite top-notch material, though I would applaud Kevin Spacey's debut effort in making something creative and different from the usual biopics we see flooding the movie industry today.

Would I recommend it? Well, I would say it's worth watching for the novelty of it. However, if that doesn't satisfy you, just sit back and enjoy the wonderful songs and the dancing.

Trivia: (mostly from IMDB.com)

Why didn't Kevin Spacey, who is clearly the best person to take up this role, didn't do this 10 years ago? Well, that's because the project took 17 years to be realized during which time six A-List writers and 20 producers were involved at one point or another. Why? Read on.

The James Toback draft which followed an earlier draft by Paul Attanasio concentrated on Sandra Dee's alcoholism and childhood molestation by her stepfather. This draft was then given to Lorenzo Carcaterra. His draft, the last before Warner Bros. and Barry Levinson left the project, was 164 pages long.

In 1987, Bruce Willis was set to played Bobby.

When the film was in being planned by Paramount, executives thought that Kevin Spacey was too old to portray Bobby Darin, who died at 37, and wanted Leonardo DiCaprio instead.

At one point, Barry Levinson wanted Johnny Depp for the lead role.

According to the making-of, Kevin Spacey has been doing musicals since he was a teenager, which probably explains why he looked so natural in the song and dance routines. And yes, may I stress this again, he has an excellent singing voice.

Additional information:

However, this movie is, after all, about one man's life journey into becoming one of the world's greatest singer. So, for those who are interested, this website has all you want to know about Bobby Darin - The Bobby Darin official website

With a little make-up magic, Kevin Spacey does share some resemblance to Bobby Darin!

Websites:

Official website: http://www.beyondtheseathemovie.com/flash/base.html

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363473/