Beyond the Sea is yet another biopic to close out 2004. “Biopic” is a word that means “boring movie that’s sole claim to interest is in the fact that this is a real person.” Considering, Beyond the Sea sinks itself into some deep water when it creates a biopic about a man whose life really isn’t particularly interesting. Even worse, to the degree that the character’s life is interesting, the character is flawed enough that it’s not the least bit inspiring.

Bottom line: there is no good reason to watch this movie – unless you want to watch Kevin Spacey sing and dance for two hours. Which you may, it’s actually kind of fun.

Kevin Spacey plays the Elvis-like Bobby Darin, who was a singing sensation in the sixties. Nearly half of the movie is Spacey singing, whether on stage or in the musical of life. On more than one occasion he’s in an ordinary place and the people around all join him in harmonized singing and synchronized dancing. It’s that kind of movie.

But it’s aware of itself, and it is so intentionally. Darin has a lot of struggles in life: he’s born with a disease that’s not supposed to let him live past 15, he’s reared by a single mother, and that’s all I can think of right now. But he has this really hard life – and music is the one thing that can keep him up. The movie reflects the idea that his life is one continual song.

Thus, we don’t really see exactly what his life was like; we see how life has been in his own eyes. Throughout the story Darin talks to the young boy playing himself in the movie that they’re making about himself. The boy seems to represent an emotional self that has been kept hidden beneath the surface. I’m not sure exactly what it all leads to, but it is more interesting than the traditional biopic approach.

The most fundamental problem with the film is that Bobby Darin, though interesting for his successful music career, is really not an interesting character. He’s a highly self-absorbed guy with a high self-image. He never once becomes as concerned with his wife (Kate Bosworth) as he is with himself. I kept waiting for a divorce, but it never happens. Well, turns out it did in real life. Much like the recent Ray, the film seems to make a very strange attempt at showing us his weaknesses – as if to show us this is a complex, tragic character – but still wants to glorify him by the end. It just doesn’t work.