All right, give the kid a chance - he's British and he's serious about being an actor. Still, Pattinson will have to do better than this potted soap-opera about lust among Madrid's upper-class artistic bad boys. Based on rumors of a physical affair between Dali and Lorca, "Little Ashes" (the title of an early Dali canvas) envisions the young artist arriving at college in 1922.
Lorca, played by Spanish actor Javier Beltran, is the acknowledged leader of the students rebelling against the old order of Church and State, and he's a nervous wreck from keeping his sexual urges in check. Dali entices him with artistic freedom and carnal bliss, culminating in a midnight swim where their skins literally glow. Over in the corner is Buñuel (Matthew McNulty), ranting against unmanly "maricones" while plotting to whisk Dali off to Paris to collaborate on their pioneering 1929 surrealist short "Un Chien Andalou." What's intended to be a daring look at repressed sexuality, three-ways and all, has the dramatic heft of a true-love comic book.
Pattinson plays the young Dali as a manipulative eccentric, using Lorca to dance close to the fire without actually getting burnt. Later, when the conceptual mustaches and hysteria break out, the actor only embarrasses himself. "Little Ashes" almost works if you view it as a Dada remake of "All About Eve," with Dali in the Anne Baxter role of meek but ruthless user, Lorca as the Bette Davis-style diva, and Buñuel sniping away like George Sanders. If only it were as much fun.
