Life: review ★★★★★ James Dean biopic too flat to be chilling

Whilst the tragedy of James Dean's death overhangs Life and gives ironic weight to many scenes in which he's struggling between a desire to create art that will make him a legend, and disdain for the media circus surrounding him, it's not quite enough to sustain Corbijn's film.

What does ring unexpected and moving is the intimate side to Dean: the sensitive romantic, the shy family man, the homesick son. But Dean's friendship with Stock, if you can call it that – is difficult to believe – interactions between the men are skimmed over and instead there's an chilly stillness that overwhelms the whole film, like the snow that silences the New York streets five months before Dean's untimely death.

Having built a reputation as the top rock photographer of the last forty years – shooting for the likes of Nirvana, U2 and Depeche Mode – this latest project is perhaps the most personal to Anton Corbijn – and he the best qualified to approach the subject. His most recent films Control, The American and A Most Wanted Man displayed this same subtlety of expression and eye for detail and whilst the film provides an interesting opportunity for fans of Corbijn and Stock's work to look behind the lens, and is clearly a photographer's love project, Life ultimately feels overly long, slow and lacking in the legend it purports to depict.