LIFE

3 stars (out of 5)

Director Anton Corbijn was an acclaimed photographer before becoming a filmmaker, and surely that’s part of the reason why he chose to handle this snapshot biopic after last year’s faithful but yawn-inducing A Most Wanted Man.

Although it’s being touted as chronicling the life story of fleeting movie icon James Dean, we only follow several months in Dean’s life and actually focus more upon Life photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson in a performance of considerable charisma – no, really). When the personally troubled Stock meets Dean (Dane DeHaan) at a Hollywood party thrown by director Nicholas Ray (Peter Lucas), who might be soon casting Dean as the lead in Rebel Without A Cause, Stock is immediately intrigued by Dean’s shyness, intelligence and star power (and is there some deeper attraction going on too?).

JD has just completed Elia Kazan’s East Of Eden (1955) and he’s on the way to fame, with scary studio boss Jack Warner (Ben Kingsley) an uneasy fan and an adoring girlfriend in Pier Angeli (Alessandra Mastronardi as a tragic figure whose relationship with Dean was perhaps her undoing). Dennis approaches his boss John Morris (Joel Edgerton in a few scenes) with plans to photograph and profile Dean, and while Morris remains unconvinced, Dennis nevertheless pursues the young actor and becomes an uneasy friend, as the pair open up to each other about how life had led them to this point. And how both feel that everything (culturally, politically, artistically) is about to change – and given how ghastly some of the pre-rock-and-roll music is that we hear, especially at a high school dance, it seems like everything desperately needed to change too.

While convincingly ‘50s in look and style, and with good work from Pattinson (who we almost wind up liking!) and DeHaan (whose JD isn’t quite as much of a narcissistic creep as the real thing), Corbijn’s latest still irritates, as these guys are so inexpressive, and because so much is left vague, especially the suggestion that something homoerotic was going on between them. Perhaps if it had been bolder and gayer this one might have had more, ahem, life?