50
A trifling historical fantasy, gossip wrapped in gossamer, beautiful to watch but it takes only a light wind to leave the story in tatters.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
A painfully sincere study in creative passion, sexual ardor and political zeal that embalms a mad and exuberant historical moment within the talky, balky conventions of period-costumed highbrow soap opera.
50
If you'd like to know about the famously eccentric psyche of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, whom Pattinson plays, you're better off consulting written biographies. Little Ashes does nothing to illuminate the iconic Spanish artist.
25
An exceedingly silly historical fantasy.
50
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
A typically bombastic lives-of-the-artists production made even more stilted by having all the actors (including the Spanish ones) speak accented English.
42
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
I can't imagine what Dali or Buñuel would have made of such bourgeois sentimentality.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Little Ashes is absorbing but not compelling. Most of its action is inward.
42
The film’s biggest problem, beyond the overheated melodrama and paper-thin period trappings, is that the trio's fictionalized dalliances diminish their real art.
50
San Francisco Chronicle by Walter Addiego
Director Paul Morrison ("Wondrous Oblivion") nicely re-creates the period, but puts too much weight on the sexual relationship as determining the men's artistic courses.