Review of "Little Ashes"

After playing the loner routine for a suitable time, Dalí ensnares Buñuel in a "meet-cute" social trap and soon enough has captured Lorca's attention as well.

From there the story is rather timeless: Sensitive gay boy falls hard for confused "outsider" who entertains his friend's affections but will not fully invest in a romance. We've seen it many times before, in Rebel Without a Cause, in Brideshead Revisited (particularly the most recent adaptation, which made Sebastian and Charles's romance more literal) and others. It never ends well, and the fact that this is inspired by a true story doesn't change that.

I say "inspired" because to call Little Ashes a "true" story would be finessing things considerably. While there was certainly an intense relationship between Lorca and Dalí, the details of just how intimate that relationship became are not known. Dalí denied any kind of relationship with Lorca for decades and only in his later years admitted that he had a close connection to the dead poet.

This film uses those admissions of friendship as a jumping-off point for the film's romance, which ultimately becomes the central story.

Much has been made, oddly, of the film's "sex scene" or scenes, when from what I can tell, the characters don't actually even technically have sex. There's plenty of gauzy, soft-focus kissing between Lorca and Dalí, and a moment of awkward foreplay that leads to one of Dalí's many mini-breakdowns, but I walked out of the movie thinking that the deed was never done.

By contrast, we're treated to a graphic and somewhat icky sex scene between Lorca and his female admirer, while Dalí watches. So if you're buying a ticket for the gay sex, you might want to rethink things.

While Ashes on the whole was a bit too self-conscious and precious for me (there are a few scenes where I had to stifle a laugh), I will give it credit for trying.

For one, the film is able to recreate the period wonderfully, and the costuming and art direction are top-notch for a film clearly made on a very thin budget. Beltrán and McNulty are intensely watchable actors and handle their roles and relationship quite well, so much so that the sequences focusing on Dali are more distracting than fascinating.

What the film does do nicely is chronicle Lorca's maturing as an activist of the working man. When we first meet the poet, he is a bit of a dandy, too preoccupied with butterflies and pretty boys and his own longings to become involved in much else.

But as a man, perhaps inspired by seeing what the relentless pursuit of art for art's sake eventually did to his friends, Lorca devoted his life to inspiring the common man, living in the country and starting a theater troupe for the people that he toured with for a number of years.

Had the film's focus been tighter and its dealing with the maybe/maybe not affair with Dalí better integrated, this this could have been a standout biopic. As it is it's a nice-looking but self-conscious trifle that captures only glimpses of its subject's genius.

Watch the trailer for Little Ashes: