Life **** (2015, Dane DeHaan, Robert Pattinson, Ben Kingsley, Alessandra Mastronardi, Joel Edgerton, Peter Lucas, Lauren Gallagher) – Movie Review

Dane DeHaan brings James Dean to Life in a snappy snap.

Set in a kind of fairy tale 1955, Life is an excellent movie, with a sweet story, superlative performances and astounding visuals in a set decorator/ production designer’s dream.

A sharply focused Robert Pattinson happily captures the persona and character of Dennis Stock, the real-life photographer for Life Magazine who is assigned to shoot pictures of the then-rising movie star James Dean. Dane DeHaan is impressive as a mumbling Marlon Brando-type James Dean, easily overcoming the fact that he doesn’t naturally look like him. DeHaan inhabits Dean territory, and owns it.

Writer Luke Davies’s affecting and literate screenplay tells the story behind Stock’s famous, iconic Life photographs of Dean, meanwhile providing an intimate look behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic images and into the life of two gifted but troubled men, who are sort of yin and yang. Dean lived fast and died young. He had a death wish. Stock had a death wish too, but Dean gave him a reason to live. Alas, Stock didn’t give Dean a reason to live. That’s what this story seems to be saying.

Though there is no reference to the idea that Dean was gay or bisexual, the film is a bit of a bromance, actually a total bromance. DeHaan’s almost coquettish Dean allows himself to be courted by Pattinson’s Stock, reluctant at first, then gradually inviting him into his life, especially after his girlfriend, the actress Pier Angeli (Alessandra Mastronardi), suddenly decides to dump Dean to marry another showbiz figure.

DeHaan plays Dean as weirdly passive aggressive, annoying, infuriating and frustrating, but strangely sexy and alluring. It’s very credible, and DeHaan does everything to make you believe. Pattinson and DeHaan strike up a lovely odd couple relationship, kind of like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple. It’s adorable.

I’m not so sure about Ben Kingsley’s bossy Warner Bros boss Jack Warner. It’s a bit of a turn, rather than the kind of truthful performance that everyone else is going for, so it sticks out like a sore thumb, but it’s entertaining and enjoyable enough.

Dutch director Anton Corbijn (Control) has a firm, er, control over the material. The movie looks like a labour of love, exactly as it should be. DeHaan’s quietly mesmerising. But the biggest surprise, perhaps, is Pattinson, convincingly American, convincingly Fifties and just convincing. he’s come on very nicely indeed as an actor.

At the end, the movie morphs hauntingly into the famous photos of Dean. That’s Life!

Interesting that the two actors who played Harry Osborn in live-action Spider-Man films (Dane DeHaan and James Franco) have also portrayed James Dean. Corbijn has a cameo as Premiere Photographer. Joel Edgerton plays John Morris, Peter Lucas plays director Nicholas Ray, Lauren Gallagher plays actress Natalie Wood, Kelly McCreary is singer Eartha Kitt, Michael Therriault is director Elia Kazan, Caitlin Stewart is actress Julie Harris, and John Blackwood is actor Raymond Massey. It’s no surprise that the film references East of Eden (1955).

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and strong language.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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