Film review: Little Ashes

Published on Thursday 11 June 2009 19:34

LITTLE ASHES (15) * DIRECTED BY: PAUL MORRISON STARRING: ROBERT PATTINSON, MATTHEW MCNULTY, JAVIER BELTRÁ

TWILIGHT heartthrob Robert Pattinson attempts to copy the career path of Leonardo DiCaprio here by attempting to extend his range with a fairly rubbish film about a sexually ambiguous artist. In DiCaprio's case he played the poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse; in Little Ashes, Pattinson tries on the young Salvador Dal for size. Alas, while DiCaprio has always had the acting talent to back up his looks, the jury is still very much out on whether Pattinson can do anything other than look pretty and moody, and this silly, excruciatingly dull film about Dal's university days certainly won't sway opinions in his favour. With his thick Spanish accent, comedy moustache and outr clothing, he looks mostly embarrassed as the young surrealist and tries way too hard to be edgy. It doesn't help that in trying to dramatise the complex friendship Dal formed with his future cinematic collaborator Louis Buuel and the gay poet Federico Garcia Lorca, screenwriter Philippa Goslett and director Paul Morrison never get under their skins. Buuel is depicted as a homophobic brute who tries to lure the dandyish Dal away from Lorca's amorous advances, which should make for some fairly explosive dramatic fireworks. Instead we get only damp squibs.