It’s not easy being Dalí,” surrealist painter Salvador Dalí tells his assistant, 50 years his junior. Certainly not, by the looks of it: From parties to paintings, Dalí’s life is one continuous machine of theatricality and commerce surrounded by hangers-on, all trying to make a buck or catch some reflected glory while the Dalí train is still humming.

Either of these two threads, commerce and fame, would make for an interesting story of Dalí in the latter years of his life, but Dalíland chooses to focus on two relationships: One between Dalí (Ben Kingsley) and his new assistant, James (Christopher Briney), who he calls “San Sebastian,” and the other between Dalí and his wife, Gala (Barbara Sukowa).

Neither forms the heart of Dalíland, but both provide enough narrative thrust to at least make the movie feel like it’s going somewhere. The year is 1974, and Dalí is preparing for his latest show in New York. James, a former aspiring artist who realizes he loves art more than he can make it, gets dropped into the traveling circus of Dalíland with the task of making sure Dalí hits his deadline. If Dalí doesn’t paint, then no one makes money. And Gala needs money for her new boy-toy, Jeff (Zachary Nachbar-Seckel). Dalí and Gala have an arrangement regarding sexual relationships, and neither seems pleased with the terms. But while this arrangement allows Dalí his eccentricities, John Walsh’s script uses it to make Gala all the more venomous.

James enjoys his time in Dalíland, specifically with the young models Dalí surrounds himself with. First, Ginesta (Suki Waterhouse), then Amanda (Andreja Pejic). But the only one James really wants to be with is Dalí.

Directed by Mary Harron, Dalíland is a surprisingly bland take on such a visually arresting artist. Dalí’s presence takes a supporting role to James’ brief intersection with sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, but if not for Kingsley’s performance as the iconic artists, it’s hard to imagine the movie existing in the first place. And since no completed Dalí paintings are displayed in the movie—possibly a rights issue—there is little here that might bring the uninitiated into the world of Dalí. Even a flashback scene of a young Dalí (Ezra Miller) conceiving The Persistence of Memory by connecting the image of a piece of Brie melting with a projection of a clock on the wall does little to illuminate the revolution that Dalí was.

Dalíland (2022)
Directed by Mary Harron
Written by John Walsh
Produced by Daniel Brunt, Chris Curling, Edward R. Pressman, Sam Pressman, David O. Sacks
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Barbara Sukowa, Christopher Briney, Rupert Graves, Andreja Pejic, Suki Waterhouse, Ezra Miller
Magnolia Pictures, Not rated, Running time 97 minutes, Opens June 16, 2023

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