This biopic was James Franco’s breakthrough. His anguished depiction of the fallen star garnered wide praise and awards. Yet it’s a highly mannered performance, complete with mumbled speech, perpetually raised eyebrows and slouched shoulders. While the physical resemblance between the two James’ helps to a point, there is little to suggest why Dean became such an icon after only three movies.

The film opens brilliantly with a scene recreation from East of Eden. Respected film actor Raymond Massey, who is portraying the father of James Dean’s character, is bewildered and outraged by this strange newcomer. The father/son relationship depicted in East of Eden is well served by this friction, but the reverse is not true when the biopic flashes back to Dean’s own childhood.

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In an effort to draw a direct parallel between Dean’s strained relationship with his own father and the characters Dean portrayed, the biopic belabours the point. The scene recreated from Rebel Without a Cause has Dean fighting with his screen father, and never mind that Dean’s character in Giant didn’t have an onscreen father. Dean explains, via a mundane narration, that the film’s director reminded him of his father.

The final denouement between Dean and his father provides the biopic with some of the emotion found in its opening scene, yet an end credit informs us that, like much of what went beforehand, it doesn’t quite ring true.