What would the eminent art critic John Berger have made of the scene in the new movie “Dalíland” in which a young Salvador Dalí shows his partner Gala “The Persistence of Memory” after just having finished it? The painting is never seen on screen, yet we know it’s that particular piece because in the previous scene Dalí envisions a wheel of cheese melting and a wavering pocket watch. All we see is Gala’s reaction to viewing the artwork for the first time; as her eyes scan right to left and dart up and down and to the center, we get a renewed sense of how strange and wonderful the artwork is. It’s a way of seeing, as Berger might have said, without actually seeing it. This imaginative scene is one of only a few in the movie that gets to the heart of the renowned painter’s surreal power and his intense relationship with Gala. For the most part, “Dalíland” is a maddeningly uneven portrait of the artist in his 70s as his faculties begin to fail him and his public persona consumes his artistic achievements. By this stage in his life, he had become almost a parody of himself, though some might say that he was in on the joke from the very start, owing to his distinctive longhorn mustache and air of aristocratic decadence.To capture someone as iconic as Dalí, director Mary Harron couldn’t have chosen a better actor than Ben Kingsley. The actor nails the artist’s frequently inanimate and yet wry expression, adding quivers of perversity to a rather strained tale of diminishing powers and amour fou. Also, the actor clearly seems to be enjoying himself; it’s great fun to watch him as Dalí as he squints when he takes off his sunglasses, compares two eggs, or makes the sign of the cross with his cane. Even during the more earnest scenes, such as when the painter compares himself unfavorably to Vermeer, or talks about death, Mr. Kingsley embodies the artist as an alchemist of the absolute and the absurd.The other actors can hardly compare with Sir Ben, though it’s not for lack of trying. According to the script, Gala was a kind of harpy, ravenous for young men and money as Dalí basked in celebrity and eccentricity, and German actress Barbara Sukowa definitely gives the role all she’s got. There are a couple scenes in the movie’s back half that attempt to humanize her, yet Ms. Sukowa says more about what Gala went through as Dalí’s wife by playing her as a caricature than in these more “honest” scenes.In a few flashback scenes, the troubled actor Ezra Miller and actress Avital Lvova play Dalí and Gala when they were young. The “Persistence of Memory” scene occurs during one of these flashbacks, and both actors are effective, despite their brief screen time. I haven’t even mentioned the main actor yet: Newcomer Christopher Briney plays James, a made-up character who assists Dalí as he prepares for a New York gallery exhibit in 1974 and then follows the Spanish artist to his homeland of Catalonia. Mr. Briney’s acting is fine, and he has an appealing aura with his bee-stung lips and lanky posture, but his character is often overshadowed by the more emphatic personalities around him. The blame sits squarely with the screenplay, which doesn’t give the actor much to work with beyond “young Mormon meets transgressive artist.” James does unknowingly get involved in a subplot involving phony Dalí lithographs (based on real events), but the storyline goes nowhere really. Written by Ms. Harron’s husband, John C. Walsh, the ramshackle script can barely elucidate the themes it’s trying to explore, namely how an iconoclast ages gracefully and what does the art world owe such an important artist. The direction, editing, and cinematography don’t help matters much, with slackly staged scenes, listless transitions, and drab imagery failing to enliven things more often than not. To be sure, not much can be done with dialogue like, “All of his paintings are about sex,” especially when there’s no clever rejoinder to such a reductive assessment.What is the viewer left with, you might ask? A few thrills during the movie’s multiple party scenes, as Dalí hangs out with rocker Alice Cooper and transexual Amanda Lear; a couple chuckles as Gala pursues the young lead actor in the original Broadway production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”; and one or two moments of insight into how the artist worked. And of course Mr. Kingsley’s seriously batty, serio-comic performance, which will persist in the memory for a long time.
