It might have worked onstage. That's the kindest thing to be said of this misconceived, highly theatrical, all-singing-often-dancing film about the tumultuous life of Bobby Darin, the crooner who scored in the '50s and '60s with songs like "Mack the Knife" and the title tune. Darin (Spacey, who also directed) soon went Hollywood, making movies and marrying and divorcing teen star Sandra Dee (Bosworth). He died in 1973 at age 37 during surgery to repair a heart weakened by a childhood illness.
Sea's conceit, that a successful, grown-up Darin is making an autobiographical film and interacting with his childhood self, is supposed to get viewers beyond the fact that Spacey is a good seven years older than Darin was at his death. It won't wash, though, particularly in scenes where the singer is supposed to be in his dewy early 20s. Onscreen, no matter how tightly glued on a hairpiece, even a performer as adroit as Spacey cannot make two-plus decades disappear. Spacey does, however, do a credible job singing and swinging to Darin's hits. (PG-13)
BIOPIC
