In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change. Salvador Dali arrives at the university; 18 years old and determined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhibitionism attracts the attention of two of the university's social elite - Lorca and Luis Bunel. Salvador is absorbed into their youthfully decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis and Federico become a formidable trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However as time passes, Salvador feels and increasingly strong pull towards the charismatic Lorca - who is himself oblivious of the attentions he is getting from his beautiful writer friend, Magdalena.
The film constantly mixes different subjects: the tense, suffocating love between Lorca and Dalí, their complicated relationship with Buñuel, the political situation of the country and their artistic flashes of genius. We get to a point where we don't know whether the action and dialogue on screen pertains to a political or romantic subject. These three men are geniuses, and they all have a complicated personality that constantly clashes with each other's art and political views. It's not that kind of film where you either love or hate the heroes and villains; everyone is both a sweetheart and a monster, everything has a good side and a bad one to it. And that's why the film is absorbing but not compelling. Most of its action is inward. The more we know about the three men the better. No one would have imagined Robert Pattison as Dali but there is something raw about his performance that I really liked. And I was glad that at least the guy is trying to break away from his twilight image by doing something so drastically different.
Overall, the film is a little bit of this and a little bit of that but nothing substantial to hold on to. It had all the elements to make it a potential timeless masterpiece, but it remains at the level of a 'pretty good film.' (5.5/10)
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