16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Captivating movie - one that sticks with you, November 30, 2009
My girlfriends and I drove over four hours away to see this movie in San Francisco when it played in the theatres. We weren't expecting much simply because this was a low-budget independent movie not getting much attention/buzz. So, how great to find a gem of a story and captivating acting by the two leads.
The movie is beautifully shot, the colors are magnificent and the story is one you are compelled to hear with an ending scene that will break your heart.
The acting of Pattinson at times can seem awkward, as he has much growing as an actor to do, but he delivers an appropriately weird and uncomfortable performance as Dali. His performance, unlike those of just plain old bad actors, is anything but boring, and one can only wonder what Pattinson may be capable of with more experience.
And Beltrain as Lorca is hard to take your eyes off of. He has an ease and sincerity to his delivery that never falters, and you'll wish he'd never stop talking let alone leave the screen!
This movie is worth watching. You'll be thinking about it long after the credits have stopped rolling.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meandering story, powerful cast, October 17, 2009
For most of his life, Salvador Dali denied that he had ever been lovers with the tragic poet Federico García Lorca -- until the end of his life.
So, writer Philippa Goslett and director Paul Morrison explore what may have been in "Little Ashes," in which two young men become close friends, more-than-friends, only to have their relationship splinter apart. It's a powerful little story with astonishing acting by Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltran, but it tends to meander and shake way too much.
In the Madrid of 1922, a shy and awkward art student named Salvador Dali (Pattinson) is drawn into a circle of vibrant, iconoclastic young artists, including filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty) and poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltran). Lorca in particular is intrigued by Dali, who is just discovering his unique melty surrealist style -- and it's not a platonic crush. And though initially he fights against the attraction, a trip to the seaside reveals Lorca's feelings to Dali.
But as their attraction grows, Buñuel feels shut out and tries to pull Dali out of Lorca's orbit -- and after an unsuccessful attempt to consummate their affair, Dali vanishes to Paris without a word. A possibly insulting movie and many years widen the split between them, until Lorca meets Dali, now world famous and in love with the "witch" Gala (Arly Jover). Dali has changed, and so has Spain -- with terrible results.
I know relatively little of either Dali or Lorca's lives, but it seems that "Little Ashes" is less about what happened than about what MIGHT have happened. Unfortunately it also falls prey to a common flaw in biographical movies, even if they're semi-fictionalized accounts -- it meanders randomly much of the time, and has awkward jumps between the different phases in the two men's lives. And what is up with Beltran suddenly reciting poetry in Spanish?
But if it meanders, it's a picturesque meander -- sunny streets of Madrid, shadowy apartments, rocky beaches, weird surrealist visions of Paris, and fun nightclubs where bright young artists congregate. Paul Morrison has a straightforward directorial style with few ups or downs, but there are some beautiful moments sprinkled throughout it -- such as a balletic swim in a moonlit blue sea, or the bittersweet final scenes for Lorca (interspersed with Dali frantically smearing black paint all over).
But this movie would be utterly forgettable if it weren't for the leads. Both are painfully magnificent, both in their chemistry and in their attempts to embody their characters. Beltran is a tragic figure who brims over with passion, sorrow and integrity, and somehow you know that things never end happily for this poor man. Marina Gatell has a small but well-acted role as a young woman passionately in love with Lorca, but obviously she can be nothing more than his friend (and once, a sexual proxy for Dali).
And Pattinson exudes almost Johnny-Depplike skill in almost becoming Dali. This is no glamorous "Twilight" role -- at first Pattinson plays him as a twitchy, painfully awkward and shy young man, but as Dali grows in confidence he also becomes more insistently eccentric and flamboyant, to the point where Lorca no longer recognizes him as a person. Mad laughter, insane grief, and all the time we're never quite sure what he's truly thinking about anything -- except, at the end, about Lorca himself.
"Little Ashes" is a flawed portrait covered in jewel-like paint -- the actors are truly astonishing in their skill, but the direction is a straightforward and spotty affair. And it's all the more tragic because at least some of it is true.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little Ashes, March 14, 2010
A friend recommended this movie to me, and it didn't sound like my cup of tea. However I ordered it anyway and I loved it. It's the story of three friends filmmaker Luis Bunel, poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, and painter Salvador Dali when they were students at Art school in Spain. However the focus of the film is the relationship between Lorca and Dali. It's very moving and heart-wrenching. The characters are beautifully played by Javier Beltran and Robert Pattinson. Both actors are fantastic. I was surprized by the chemistry between these two actors. They played off each other very well. Beltran illustrated Lorca's passion for Dali and Pattinson portrayed the conflicted & eccentric Dali to perfection. It's about love, loss, fear,regret, love of country & family, prejudice and violence. I decided to look up the work of these artists b/c of the film. I saw some films of Dali. He really was eccentric and Robert nailed that. I was crying at the end because it was very moving and sad. I would have liked more background information on all three major characters. They could have hired a dialect coach to make the English of the two British actors sound more like that of the Spanish actor. Other than that I highly recommend the film.
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