Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

a film about James Dean who represents a great job. or one of the most significant roles for James Franco. because the portrait of a strange legend of Hollywood is realistic, precise, touching and seductive. because, in few scenes, it becomes a trip in past. because it is one from many TV biographic movies but without the ordinaries ambitions and tricks. a film about a fight who defines self definition, it is one of films who not propose an idea but a support for understand a life who, in many occasions, represents only the ash of legend. James Dean by Franco is alive and vulnerable in the form who defines his characters in better manner. the seed of conflict between father and son is a good point for be one of solutions for an enigma. the sentimental life is represented in inspired manner. a beautiful film who use the physical resemblance as ingredient of a great story.

James Dean, a 2001 television movie directed by Mark Rydell introduces us to James Dean's life and relationships, especially to the relationship with his father. As 9 year old boy, James Dean was sent from California to Indiana to live with his aunt and uncle after the death of her mother. The artistic young boy, who became to be one of the biggest Hollywood movie icons, spent his youth in a farm before going back to California and eventually to New York. At New York this aspiring young adult got roles and eventually a contract with a movie studio, moving back to California.Everyone knows James Dean. He was handsome, mysterious and talented. And his career and life ended way too early. Like the tag line of the movie says "Too fast to live. Too young to die." James Franco isn't just acting James Franco. He becomes James Franco in this movie. He looks like James Franco, he moves like James Franco and he talks like James Franco. I think he even thinks like James Franco. It is magnificent to see an actor so talented as James Franco playing an actor so talented as James Dean was.This movie is an interesting look into James Dean's life. The relationship James has with his father is the one that it is closely followed in this movie. It is a relationship that probably shaped James Dean most as a person; he felt like everyone else loves and wants to be with him, except the one person he really wanted to be with; his father. Michael Moriarty does great job as James's dad, a man who does not know how to show his feelings and tell his son that he is respected.After watching this and 127 hours I have seen a completely new side of James Franco. I have always known that he is talented and extremely intelligent. But seeing him getting into these two very different roles; the role of James Dean, a Hollywood actor and a role of Aron Ralson, an ordinary man who became famous due to his amazing survival. James Franco's work shows what a good actor is like; devoted and able to mold into different roles. He is charismatic, extremely handsome and oh so talented. If some actor needs more hype in Hollywood, it must be James Franco.

In this late-night TV movie, James Franco delivers a stunning, totally convincing portrait of the late James Dean. His physical resemblance is uncanny and his acting is spot-on, not just with the James Dean style of acting but also the awkward, shy and stooped body language off-screen and the confused persona.The whole early 1950s era is brilliantly re-created (vehicles, drinks, bars, TV and film of the time) with superb location shooting and a re-enactment of the Hollywood of the time.Dean is portrayed as an awkward child from a difficult background, with his mother dying when he was nine years old and all of the upheaval that followed (moving to Indiana, for example). He discovers his love of reckless motorcycle driving in the cornfields, something that would later cost him his life.For me, this was one of those surprise films which was rather short - about 90 minutes - yet which I just hoped would go on for another hour or more. It was that brilliant. James Franco is a star.

This film biography of 1950's Hollywood legend James Dean highlights his public life and the estranged relationship that he had with his father. Other aspects of his private life are merely hinted at, probably because to cover them honestly and forthrightly might have alienated some TV viewers. And so, the cinematic result here is shallow and superficial.The film stars James Franco, as Dean. Most viewers adore Franco's performance. Certainly, he has Dean's mannerisms down pat. Franco does a good imitation of Dean. But Franco's acting is a little too affecting, a little too shallow, to be persuasive, in my opinion. In addition, Franco seems too young and innocent, compared to the real James Dean, a person who looked older than his years, and more sophisticated.Actually, it is the secondary performances that lift the film's overall acting quality. Edward Herrmann, Mark Rydell, and especially Michael Moriarty are terrific in their roles. Other secondary performances are also quite good.Despite a superficial, and sanitized, script, and despite Franco's mannered performance, the film is mildly entertaining, thanks to great production design, realistic costumes, excellent film editing, and the acting in secondary roles. The photographic stills of Hollywood and Manhattan, when combined with the jazzy background music, add authenticity to the story's settings, and therefore depth and texture to the film.For viewers who know little or nothing about the real James Dean, this superficial flick is worth watching, with the proviso that the film touches only on the most obvious aspects of Dean's life. A lot is left out. A longer, more in-depth, script would have perhaps yielded a more realistic, and therefore satisfying, film.