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 To
tal Eclipse; in Little Ashes, Pattinson tries on the young Salvador Dalí 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 Dalí's university days certainly won't sway opinions in his favour. With his thick Spanish accent, comedy moustache and outré 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 Dalí formed with his future cinematic collaborator Louis Buñuel and the gay poet Federico Garcia Lorca, screenwriter Philippa Goslett and director Paul Morrison never get under their skins. Buñuel is depicted as a homophobic brute who tries to lure the dandyish Dalí away from Lorca's amorous advances, which should make for some fairly explosive dramatic fireworks. Instead we get only damp squibs.
The full article contains 224 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
