If he could direct he would be a triple threat

Kevin Spacey is a gifted actor with the particular ability to play cold, calculating characters. As a director, Kevin miscasts himself in his Bobby Darrin biopic Beyond the Sea. The film is an exercise in hero worship, therefore Darrin never does anything that makes him unworthy of being the subject of such a fawning exercise. From an early age the Darrin in the film claims he is going to be the biggest star in the world, but he almost never has to do anything calculated to win that fame. At every point his natural talent just bursts forth and everyone recognizes what a gift to the world he is and the world falls in line. Show business is a cold and cruel business and I have to believe that if we were shown a Darrin with a calculated sense of what will make him famous - or at least a fairly stereotypical issue about both wanting and being repelled by the public adoration - he would be more believable and compelling. As it stands now Spacey fails to let his audience understand what made Darrin so special, aside from his nearly psychotic Horatio Algar-ish positivity. Only once do we see Darrin go against his natural instincts in order to win his audience. He figures out late in the film how to make his fans accept his new interest in folk music, but he never questions himself. There is no self-doubt in the character and that leaves an audience unable to identify with him.

If the film's only problem were a less than engaging lead character it could still skate by if the production numbers were engaging. Spacey does an outstanding job singing the part. With the exception of "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife" he improves on every one of Darrin's songs. The problem, and this is a problem, is that Spacey is no dancer. Spacey the director knows this, however, which leads to all of the dance sequences being filmed as singles with Spacey in the center of the frame - the other dancers partially out of frame so that it is harder to tell how out of step Spacey is with them. Staging a Busby Berkley inspired number and then shooting it in that way is just ridiculous - an adjective that can be used to describe much of the film.

I would like to see Kevin Spacey act in anything, and I'm sure the soundtrack to this film would make for a very entertaining listen, but after Beyond the Sea and Albino Alligator it seems obvious that he has no real feel for how to direct.