"Little Ashes" is the type of independent film that
is the reason independent films  have a bad reputation. What could have been a
very interesting movie, as it is based on an interesting time in history and
interesting, soon to be famous, artists in an interesting city (Madrid) and
country (Spain) is a complete failure. Nothing here is interesting!!


As movies are suppose to be a director's meeting the failure of this film is
on the shoulders of Paul Morrison. From the very bad accents to the even worse
makeup, not to mention the acting, there is very little to be positive
about.
When you have real life people like Salvidor Dali,
Federico Garcia and Luis Bunuel it is pretty hard to make them dull but Morrison
has succeeded in doing just that. He has, also, filled the screen with way too
many 'artistic shots' of flowers, meadows, tress, under water scenes and
'travelogue' shots making a 1 hour and 50 minute film seem like twice that
length. I thought it would never end even though 3 or 4 times it seemed it was
ending.
In the acting department Javier Beltran as Lorca comes off the best which really isn't
saying much. I don't think he, Robert Pattinson as Dali, Matthew McNulty as Bunuel or Marina Gatell as Margarite will have this film on their
resumes.
Should there be any audience for this film it will
probably be those who want to see Pattinson from the "Twilight" film and will
feel cheated as Beltran does a lot more nudity than he does and even that isn't
sexy. Another thing working against Pattinson is the makeup--it all looks very
phony including what is suppose to be the real Dali's exceptional
mustache.
All in all "Little Ashes" is a dismal failure all around.