Director Mary Harron’s latest offering is part biopic, part Almost Famous rehash. Dalíland follows starry-eyed fanboy James Linton (Christopher Briney) as he gets a job working for the now-ageing Salvador Dalí and is initiated into the art world. He embraces the mythology surrounding this man, eagerly joining the other artists and acolytes who follow him, and finally coming to know the real Dalí.

Dalíland is for the most part fairly derivative, and some moments are positively cringeworthy, such as the flashback in which he gets the idea for his most famous painting, ‘The Persistence Of Memory’. You can’t help but wonder if a different protagonist might have given the film a bit more substance, Linton being such an everyman that he feels utterly empty.

Nevertheless, Dalíland manages to paint a compelling portrait of Dalí and his strong but dissatisfied wife, Gala (Barbara Sukowa). This is in no small part thanks to Ben Kingsley’s affecting performance. His Dalí is childlike, dependent on the fawning of those around him, but ultimately in love with the past. The performances alongside the subtly beautiful cinematography make it difficult not to sympathise with Dalí and Gala’s yearning for lost youth. 

Daliland is in cinemas from Friday 13 October.