Beyond the Sea
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: December 17, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
14
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Kevin Spacey, both as star and director, has created a hugely entertaining, highly empathetic portrait of a man for whom music was literally the thing that kept him alive. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Put simply, the film is a dazzling and fearless piece of showmanship. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
As long as Spacey is singing, the movie soars. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Doing his own singing (an uncanny imitation), Spacey is a marvel. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is also probably relevant that Spacey, in preparing the project, knew something we could not guess: He is a superb pop singer. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The imagination, energy, chutzpah and sheer affection shown for Darin by director-writer-star Spacey, who plays the singer, are admirable, kicky. This is a movie, that, like Darin himself, takes a lot of chances and delivers on many of them. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
It's raffish, flashy, energetic, entertaining and not very deep. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Artfully structured, combining old-school MGM-type musical numbers with occasional postmodern flourishes to keep the narrative moving. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Spacey's brazen casting isn't as beyond the pale as it ought to be. In fact, it's hard to imagine this strange and only occasionally successful movie without him. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The real stars are the orchestrators and musicians who swaddled Spacey in a gorgeous blanket of sound. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It fails to persuade us that its subject is significant enough to be worth a movie. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Saved by energetic musical numbers. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Anyone who thinks Beyond The Sea is a movie about Bobby Darin isn't paying close enough attention. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Weirdly moving. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Hindered by its own theatricality, Beyond the Sea feels at once hermetic, defensive and corny. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Spacey is almost as swinging as Darin was, but his filmmaking leans toward tried-and-true formulas. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Beyond the Sea, with all its gaping faults, is the genuine article. It succeeds in being deeply and sincerely insincere. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineEthan Alter
In the end, Spacey's devotion to Darin may have blinded him to the bigger picture. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Had Spacey made Beyond the Sea 10 or 15 years ago, it might have been close to transporting. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
By offering up the feel-good, MGM-styled musical version, a movie you can hum along to, his biopic serves only as a giant question mark; why bother if you're going to excise the interesting and naughty bits. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The film never gives you a real sense of what drove Darin on, fighting a heart ailment (from childhood rheumatic fever) and fighting an industry and press that wanted to pigeonhole him. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Vanity: the surest road to mediocrity. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
Apart from Caroline Aaron's turn as Darin's overbearing sister...Beyond the Sea has nothing to recommend it. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
You can't BECOME a character if you want to BE that character: Desperation isn't the same thing as acting. Spacey's mimicry is so precise, it's exhausting. Read full review
38
PremierePeter Debruge
Kevin Spacey is a darn good actor, and he's a pretty good singer to boot. But those traits alone do not excuse the painful experience to be had sitting through Beyond the Sea. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Clumsily merges fiction and reality, biography and musical fantasy, and breaks the fourth wall in a way that allows Spacey to lamely address his own miscasting. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
The willfully eccentric Beyond the Sea seems to be telling us a lot more about its star and director, Kevin Spacey, than its ostensible subject. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Much more "Splish" than "Splash." Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
This vainglorious biopic about Bobby Darin is really about what the '60s pop singer and actor means to Kevin Spacey. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The best reason to see it is Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldHoward Cohen
Camp classic? You bet. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's simply an awful, awful film. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Jaw-droppingly awful. Read full review
20
Village VoiceDennis Lim
By the end of this wholly disorienting experience (this must be what it's like to be held captive in a Long Island supper club and force-fed hallucinogens), there's only one thing we damn well know, and it's that Kevin Spacey sure as hell believes he was born to play Bobby Darin. Read full review
10
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Such a hopeless mess that there's no fun in tossing insults at its endless shortcomings. Read full review
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