Beyond the Sea depicts Darin's rise to success in both the music and film industry during the 1950s and 1960s as well as his marriage to Sandra Dee, portrayed by Kate Bosworth.

Rather than providing a straightforward biography, the film weaves fantasy sequences with scenes containing somewhat fictionalized accounts of events in Darin's life, and throughout it, the adult singer interacts with his younger self.

It chronicles his determination to rise from his working-class roots as Walden Robert Cassotto, a frail boy from The Bronx plagued by multiple bouts of rheumatic fever, who becomes a singer more famous than Frank Sinatra.

Not wanting to limit his appeal to rock and roll audiences, he changes his niche to big band singing and recording major hits, such as "Mack the Knife".

He falls in love with the 18-year-old actress; determined to marry her, he romantically seduces and enchants her with songs like "Beyond the Sea" and "Dream Lover".They elope, angering her mother.

To his actress wife's chagrin, Darin is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a shell shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D.

[1] Beginning in 1986, Barry Levinson intended to produce and direct a biopic based on the life of Darin with funding from his own production company, Baltimore Pictures.

[2] With writer Lewis Colick, Levinson pitched the idea to Warner Bros. Pictures, who agreed to co-finance The Bobby Darin Story and cover distribution duties.

[3] Carcaterra's detailed research included Darin's music records, home videos, early television clips, authorized and unauthorized biographies, newspaper articles and magazine interviews.

As a result, some of the writer's favorite scenes, including a Las Vegas confrontation with Elvis Presley, were omitted from his third and final draft, which came in at a lengthy 164 pages.

'"[12] With filming to originally begin in late 1997, pre-production for Dreamer was commencing, and Levinson began to discuss the film with various actors, including Johnny Depp as Bobby Darin, Drew Barrymore as Sandra Dee,[13] Bette Midler as Darin's birth mother Nina and Bruno Kirby as Nina's husband/Darin's right-hand man, Charlie Mafia.

[9] Levinson eventually vacated the director's position in favor of Liberty Heights (1999);[14] because he was unable to get Dreamer into production, Warner Bros. lost the music licensing rights, which reverted to the Darin estate.

[3] Beginning in October 2000, Spacey took vocal training lessons[19] from Darin collaborator Roger Kellaway to give an accurate portrayal of the singer.

Spacey's mother, Kathleen Fowler, died of brain cancer just before production started, as such, the film is dedicated in her memory, with the text "for Mom", being displayed before the credits.

"[6] After his award-winning performances in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, Spacey "chose to move away from dark, sarcastic characters, and instead play damaged but good-hearted men"[6] in films like Pay It Forward, K-PAX and The Shipping News.

The actor was criticized for his career move; Spacey acknowledged the similarities when Darin integrated folk music and protest songs.

[6] In February 2003, it was announced that production for Beyond the Sea was becoming fast tracked with Spacey as lead actor, co-writer, producer and director, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) agreed to cover distribution duties in North America.

[3] Lions Gate Entertainment quickly picked up the distribution duties, and Spacey found enough investors from England and Germany to continue moving forward on production.

[29] Beginning in October 2004, the Writers Guild of America, West conducted arbitration to determine writing credit for the scripts that had been written since Barry Levinson, who developed the film at Warner Bros. in 1987, left the project.

Its consensus states "Kevin Spacey's bio of singer Bobby Darin is either a fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project, according to critics.

[24] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle felt that Spacey looked too old to portray Darin convincingly and called the film "one of the most embarrassing spectacles of 2004" and "jaw-droppingly awful, a misbegotten and ill-conceived vanity project.

"[32] Desson Thomson from The Washington Post praised the actor's work, but also felt Spacey did not convincingly portray Darin in his early music career.

[33] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli found the storyline to be overtly clichéd, but added, "Despite the choppy narrative and inappropriate casting of Spacey, Beyond the Sea managed to keep me entertained.

"[34] Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, stating, "Kevin Spacey believes he was born to play Bobby Darin.

"[35] Stephen Holden of The New York Times felt that "with Beyond the Sea, Spacey crawls back from his doomed quest to be a Tom Hanks-like everyman to his niche on the underbelly of Hollywood's pantheon.

"[36] Peter Travers, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, believed Spacey could not prevent "the movie from groaning under the weight of biopic clichés.

Spacey was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Jamie Foxx for Ray.

He and Phil Ramone were also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to the producers of Ray.

It features two Dolby Digital English audio tracks (one in 2.0 Stereo and the other in 5.1 Surround Sound), director's commentary by Spacey, and a making-of featurette.