Robert Pattinson impresses in this stylish drama about the relationship between celebrity and the media.

An intense mob formed around the Berlinale press screening of Anton Corbijn's Life ?? such is the continued allure of Robert Pattinson. His fans beyond the festival will be pleased to hear that his brittle performance as LIFE magazine photographer, Dennis Stock, outshines Dane DeHaan's over-baked rendering of James Dean, although the latter is poignant enough to enliven this tale of men helping each other to take a leap into greatness.

Although both died as glittering names in their respective fields of photojournalism and film (in early 1955), they were both trying to pursue personal ambitions under the strain of industry demands. Corbijn uses their motivations which sometimes overlap and often clash to convey the dance that takes place in media-talent relationships. Sometimes it jitterbugs into exploitation, at others it waltzes into mutually beneficial harmony.

"What do you see in him?" asks Dennis's agent (Joel Edgerton). This drama takes place during the run-up to the premiere of East of Eden , the film that would make Dean a major league movie star. Warner Brothers are hemming over casting him in Rebel Without A Cause , fearing that his quirky honesty makes him unsuitable for the studio’s star template treatment. In short, he hasn't quite happened yet and is overshadowed on the red carpet by his actress lover, Pier Angeli.

“It’s an awkwardness, it's something pure,” is what Dennis sees in Jimmy. He is dying to get away from the red-carpet beat in order to pursue his artistic inclinations. What he also sees in Dean is material for promotion to his desired field. So begins the slippery business of pinning down the evasive but disarming boy from Indiana. Languid, melancholic, conga-playing farmboy, Jimmy, wants a friend not a photographer. He’ll invite Dennis out for jazz and benzedrine but expertly derail the matter of snapping.

Dennis has a growing exasperation to go with his fast?approaching deadline. It’s easy to empathise. Jimmy is annoying, intentionally and unintentionally. Dane DeHaan ratchets up Dean’s rhythmic speech and sounds permanently like a performance poet reading Allan Ginsberg. His small cherubic face is worlds away from the big handsome mug of history. His awkward mannerisms morph beautifully into charm, still the array of affectations jar. Dennis provides relief. He is curt and minimal?essaying a very controlled, clock-watching professional. Pattinson's performance is as crisp as the white shirt and black suits his character always wears. This is a camouflage for his own problems that slowly unfurl, adding colour and improving the film.

Corbijn plumbed his roots as a photographer to create a decadent strain of monochrome in his debut, Control . In Life, he is subtle but satisfying with the visual storytelling. Serene frames show a tactile recreation of '50s America. Details from vintage motors to hand-painted shop signs to the names of the films playing in 'CINEMASCOPE' in the various cinemas frequented are right but not ostentatiously so. There is a seasonal coldness in the air and many scenes of men talking into the receivers of old ebony phone receivers.

The social backdrop is just as carefully wrought. In another film, Ben Kingsley's fuming studio head, Jack Warner, would be The Other Man to Jimmy Dean and the tussle would be Saving Mr Banks flavour. Instead, Kingsley ball-busts just enough to give Jimmy's non-conformity gravitas, but the viewfinder is trained on the man behind the camera. Pattinson steps up, allowing more of his character's insides to come out. As Life proceeds the pace picks up and by the third act, it is a compelling dramatisation of an artistically fascinating alliance.