East of Eden (1955)

The good son and the bad son. The father who loves the good son. The other son who desires to be loved by daddy. Elia Kazan's East of Eden may be a cheesy, biblical family drama, but James Dean adds enough explosives for it to be interesting. The guy bounces, fidgets, jumps, gazes - you don't see that kind of anxiousness and restlessness in movies that often. I'm not saying this is great acting, but its pretty excessive, make what you want of it. Well, pretty much everything is predictable and over the top in this colorful tale about decency, family relations and love, and wouldn't it be for Dean's energy, Kazan's film wouldn't take off. There are not many layers to unwrap and the characters are what they are, paper-dolls with clumsy and overwrought lines. There's religious daddy, the conventional son, the rambunctious kid and the lost mother who has turned into a powerful businesswoman. The one and only thing that kept my interest was the early critique of the futures business. East of Eden is plenty of fun to watch, but it's an over-dramatic mess.