Rating: NNN
It’s admirable that Kevin Spacey was concerned enough about his portrayal of teen idol Bobby Darin in the biopic Beyond The Sea (opening in theatres December 15) to research his music, spend time with Darin’s musical director, Roger Kellaway, and get the original charts and arrangements from Darin’s manager, Steve Blauner to accurately recreate his best-known recordings. The fact that Spacey has worked up a remarkably good Darin impersonation – and can actually sing the part – is great for the film, but trying to sell reasonable facsimiles of Mack The Knife, Hello Young Lovers and Artificial Flowers when Darin’s definitive versions are readily available pushes what could be sincere homage into embarrassing vanity-project territory. Darin’s musical legacy would’ve been better served by a compilation of the fabulous lesser-known work he recorded for his own Direction label.
