Life

Life. A single word title, it sadly doesn’t give much away. To be perfectly honest this film would have passed me by with a blink of an eye.

The cases imagery of two men walking in front of a brash blue and white background hardly makes it an enticing buy and lets face it, showcasing Robert Pattinson as a leading man doesn’t make me grab the film off the shelf with a sense of uncountable excitement.

But with all that said I had heard about this film a while ago, a story based upon the friendship of photographer Dennis Stock and James Dean (if you do not know who James Dean is then shame on you!!). From and artists perspective I was intrigued and hoped and prayed that the portrayal of the main characters would be up to a considerable standard.

A loose description of the film without giving away any spoilers would be…a struggling photographer (Dennis Stock) is trying to make his break away from red carpet snap shots and becomes intrigued with an up and coming actor (James Dean) he sees the potential impact this young man is going to have on the future of movies and is determined to have a shoot with him. Once given the go ahead on a new assignment to shoot Dean for a spread in Life Magazine the journey of frustration, creativity and eventually friendship begins.

Ultimately this film was very slow to begin with and it took me a while to be convinced by Pattinson’s performance as Dennis Stock. In my opinion a good actor needs to be able to convince their audience that they are not ‘pretending’ from the moment they are seen on screen or stage. Sadly this could not be said for Pattinson’s performance but please bare with him, within 15 minutes or so of the film my opinion changed, it was as if he himself became more comfortable with the character with every minute. Although he should have portrayed this from the opening credits by the end of the film you forget about all the awkward unknowing displayed at the beginning. Dane DeHaan who played James Dean, on the other hand is an entirely different conversation. The level of acting was consistent throughout the entire film and while we the public think we know everything there is to known about James Dean, DeHaan was able to display a true tortured vulnerability of the character, which I would have never thought possible. When someone says the name James Dean, I always thought of the beautiful face, the fast cars and of course the movies. To see him portrayed is such a frustrated tortured manner is something I would not have expected.

The photographs that were produced for Life Magazine were beautiful but it was the candid shots that first caught my attention. I’ve added a few of my favourites from the shoot for you to feast your eyes upon.

I would recommend this film to any James Dean fan, but like I have previously said, it is a film you just need to bare with, it does get so much better, I promise.