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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:15
Rotten:48
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: It has a beautiful cast, but Little Ashes suffers from an uneven tone and a surplus of unintentionally silly moments.
Theatrical Release:08-05-2009
Synopsis: A romantic story about the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dali, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change as traditional... [More]
Starring: Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell
Director: Paul Morrison
The only viewers on whom the film is likely to make a big impression are young fans of Robert Pattinson, the heart-throb star of Twilight. For them, watching their idol’s unrestrained performance as Dali will be quite a crash course in surrealism.
It's reductive and overly schematic in the way movies about the literary and intellectual life tend to be.
It's an interesting scenario, but its workaday execution couldn't be further from the avant-garde aspirations of its protagonists.
Shying away from the big issue, Morrison leaves us feeling oddly removed from what is otherwise a beautiful, heartbreaking story.
In the end, it doesn’t satisfy as fact-based bio or love story, but we appreciate the effort.
Top CriticUltimately, Little Ashes, a piece of commercial entertainment made on the other side of the twentieth century, lacks the courage of its case studies' convictions.
Top CriticThe presence of Robert Twilight Pattinson in the cast of Little Ashes might generate more interest in this insubstantial drama than its meagre merits warrant.
Top CriticIt's quite an achievement to make a discreet, diffident film about the rumoured love affair between tyro artists Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca - but I'll be damned if Little Ashes doesn't manage it.
Top CriticDirector Paul Morrison doesn’t do a terrible job on the budget, but it’s all a good deal too amateur-Brideshead to be believed.
Top CriticWretched and devastating rather than titillating, the pivotal homosexual love affair is beautifully and sensitively handled, resulting in an intense character piece throbbing with innovation and sexual repression.
It might be frolicky and slightly frivolous, but Little Ashes's Entourageian take on the lives of Spain's artistic elite has a fiery passion and some fine central performances.
This is basically Costa Del Merchant-Ivory with the thickly accented British members of the cast appearing to have elocution lessons from Fawlty Towers' Manuel. Yet it's an intriguing story, well-served by some neat performances.
Leaving questions dangling, this isn’t the definitive take on Dalí art-lovers may crave. Still, shot on a shoestring, it’s nevertheless a lush, involving period drama that proves there are other strings to Pattinson’s bow.
Little Ashes is an arthouse film filled with bare bottoms, full-frontal nudity and gay passion. You can practically hear Pattinson's army of girl fans weeping into their popcorn.
Paul Morrison’s evocation of the meeting in 1920s Madrid and subsequent tortuous relationship of the young Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel and Federico Garcia Lorca is such a labour of love that you forgive its incongruities.
It does boast a lavish recreation of the period, fabulous costumes, the rugged beauty of some prime European locations and enough torrid emotions to make for a captivating period piece.
Engaging, beautifully shot and impressively acted drama, though it runs out of steam towards the end and lacks the courage of its convictions.
limps along about as lifelessly as one of Dali's melting clocks
Beltran tries to give this flimsy nonsense some weight, but Brits McNulty and Pattinson's attempts at a Spanish accent are woeful.
It's not even worth it for Robert Pattinson, who is shown in the movie, nearly fully naked, with his privates tucked between his legs, but everything else showing.
May 14, 2009:
Little Ashes Moustache Contest Winners Announced!
Your humble Rotten Tomatoes editors would like to thank everyone who participated in our Little Ashes Moustache Contest! We received TONS of great moustache submissions for our... More...
May 08, 2009:
Little Ashes Moustache Contest - Give Us Your Best 'Stache!
In this week's period piece Little Ashes, Twilight star Robert Pattinson adopts the mannerisms -- and the famously eccentric facial hair -- of Spanish artist Salvador Dali. In... More...
May 07, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Star Trek Is The Best-Reviewed Wide Release of 2009!
This week at the movies, we've got a brand new Enterprise (Star Trek, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) and a failed delivery (Next Day Air, starring Donald Faison and... More...
April 19, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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