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So much average

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I don't know much about James Dean, so I can only comment on the movie and having seen it, it's two hours of performance pieces from Pattinson, still trying to clean the Twilight stigma off his name, and DeHaan, wanting to get out of the casting hole for a mentally unstable person in which he has found himself. Both of them did a great job.Yet the script is slow moving through the subtle interaction between the two characters, happening just before James Dean became truly famous. Anyone expecting Hollywood shenanigans and bad boy theatrics is going to be disappointed. Instead, we are treated to two young men who are just beginning to figure out who they really are and tie a temporary bond a friendship over their shared confusion and the pressure of the world for them to be something else.A beautiful movie, but one that shows only a glimpse of who Jimmy was and nothing spectacular or shocking. It is a "life" film, as my mother used to call these things, and therefore not appropriately entertaining for everyone.

This film tells the story of a freelance photographer who spots something special in James Dean, who has yet to make it super famous. He tries to do a photoshoot with James Dean, only to be pushed around and played with for weeks. They form an almost coercive yet deep relationship with each other.I haven't watched a James Dean film, so I can't tell whether the demeanour portrayed is accurate or not. If it is accurate, I am rather unclear why a person who is mellow and yet manipulative can fascinate the world. I mean, his voice is monotonous as sleep inducing! The film is very slow, not much happens and things just drag on for way longer than it should. The characters are not interesting or sympathetic. There is nothing captivating about the story. The only thing I like about "Life" is the fact that Robert Pattison is finally looking healthy like a human, shedding his image of a vampire.

Life Magazine photographer Dennis Stock forms an attachment and gets to spend time and photograph a young James Dean in the early stages of his tragically short career. Set around the time of the announcement of the engagement of Pier Angeli to Vic Damone, the news sent Dean spiralling into depression, Dean having dated Angeli previously. Dennis recognises that 'Jimmy' is part of a change in society, and aims to be there throughout.James Dean is a truly iconic figure, to this day his tragic loss is felt, who knows how good an actor he would have become. It's a very sensitive film, everything is subtle and softly done somehow, I include the two leading performances in that summary also, I thought Dane DeHaan was an excellent piece of casting as James Dean, I bought into him. As for R Patz I quite like him as an actor, I question some of the roles he takes, I thought he was very good in this. The gravitas came from Ben Kingsley, who unfortunately didn't get a great amount of screen time.I find the start a little slow, but after the first thirty or forty minutes it really opens up. Rather good, underrated movie, 7/10

I wanted to like this movie, in fact I would have liked this movie but for one very important thing: To watch this portrayal of James Dean by someone with such little charisma and animal magnetism and sorry Dane Dehaan "sex appeal" play someone like James Dean was just painful to watch, and utterly disappointing. I am not saying he is not a fine actor - IN ANOTHER ROLE - but let's get real, James Dean would have never been THE James Dean had he not been swoon-worthy, on screen and off, and I'm sorry but that simply does not apply to Dane Dehaan, at least in this role. (I haven't seen him in anything else that I can recall so I can't say he isn't fine in another role.) Unbelievable and unrealistic that any studio or the masses would have been pursuing THIS James Dean. The movie had so much potential but this unfortunate casting choice for the single most important part in the film killed it for me.