William Ullrich Movies
- 2005
In the final episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's sixth season, the SVU team investigates when two police officers, both former army reservists who'd served in Afghanistan, lash out violently at their wives--after experiencing terrifying hallucinations and exhibiting suicidal tendencies. This bizarre behavior is linked to the anti-malaria drug Quinium, which is now apparently being peddled illegally. The climax finds Assistant DA Novak (Diane Neal) taking an unusually personal interest in proving that the Defense Department knew all about Quinium's disastrous side effects but had refused to reveal their findings; and at the same time, Detective Stabler (Christopher Meloni) has a showdown with his estranged wife. Law & Order regular Fred Dalton Thompson makes a cameo appearance in his familiar guise as DA Arthur Branch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Kevin Spacey serves as both director and star for this biopic based on the life and career of legendary entertainer Bobby Darin, which moves back and forth between his childhood and adult selves to tell the tale of his remarkable life. Born Bobby Cassotto and raised in the Bronx, young Bobby (played as a child by William Ullrich) was raised by his mother, Polly (Brenda Blethyn), his brother-in-law, Charlie (Bob Hoskins), and his sister, Nina (Caroline Aaron). At the age of 15, Bobby contracted a severe case of rheumatic fever, which was expected to take his life; while it left him with a weak heart, Bobby beat the odds and survived. Buoyed by a love of music passed along by his mother, Bobby learned to play several instruments and began singing as he recovered. Displaying a confidence and drive which stopped just short of arrogance, he adopted the stage name Bobby Darin and set his sights on becoming a star. After a string of hits as a rock & roll singer, Darin (played as an adult by Kevin Spacey) takes another gamble, and with the help of manager Steve Blauner (John Goodman) he reinvents himself as a supper-club vocalist in the manner of Frank Sinatra. All the more remarkably, he succeeds, and his swinging version of "Mack the Knife" tops the charts. Now a major singing star, Darin decides to take up acting; on the set of his first movie, he woos his female co-star Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth), and despite the stern objections of her mother (Greta Scacchi), Bobby and Sandra wed. But after a string of successful movies for Dee and hit records and an Oscar nomination for Darin, the shifting tastes of the 1960s throw their careers off-track. Bobby cautiously embraces the new sounds of the day, but his old fans don't want to hear him cover Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones, while the younger audience isn't interested in his new sound, leaving Darin in a difficult place to make his way back to stardom. Kevin Spacey did his own singing for Beyond the Sea, recreating Bobby Darin's vocal style with uncanny accuracy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, (more)
