Movie Review for Ask the Dust

Summary: Set under the brutally sunny skies of Depression-era Los Angeles, a tale of obsession that focuses on a city both exotic and vulgar, glamorous and raunchy--a place of heat and dust. Full of imports--palm trees from Egypt and people from everywhere in search of health and wealth, fame and fortune--L. A. is the city of first and last resort, where all dreams are supposed to come true. So it is for Arturo Bandini, the ambitious son of Italian immigrants who dreams of becoming a famous novelist and marrying a beautiful blonde, and Camilla Lopez, a Mexican who longs to marry a WASP and shed her last name. In a time when Anglo-Chicano relations hang by tattered threads, Bandini and Camilla collide with one another, fighting the city and themselves to make their dreams come true.

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            Donald Sutherland saunters onscreen, momentarily raising the level of the film, before he ambles ...

By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/0)
            Towne and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel beautifully capture Fante's city of the dispossessed, w...

By Stella Papamichael of BBC (7/0)
            Like the desert beyond, the film is arid and airless.

By Alan Dale of Blogcritics.org (7/0)
            Towne has a perhaps unique ability to make this ill-fated movie romance classically seductive whi...

By Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader (7/0)
            [A] sexy, sensual, romantic, nostalgic adaptation of the novel ...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            Ask the Dust requires an audience with a special love for film noir, with a feeling for the lonel...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            The film is not only an evocation of a bygone era but an emanation of it as well.

By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
            No one gets away unscathed in Robert Towne's overblown attempt at transfiguring John Fante's nove...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            The film outstays its welcome and winds up with an unsatisfying thunk.

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            If you can believe that a character with Colin Farrell's good looks has no experience with women ...

By Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing (7/0)
            Difficult to swallow are the heavy-handed narrative developments that dominate the film's second ...

By Philip Wuntch of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
            Whether or not you're familiar with John Fante, if you like novels, you'll like Ask the Dust.

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            The film is an overwrought mess that you'd almost swear was a parody if you didn't know better.

By Peter Sobczynski of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            A perplexing but ultimately rewarding experience.

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            Featuring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek at their most appealing, Towne's film adds another panel ...

By Kim Newman of Empire Magazine (7/0)
            A curiously resistable drama, despite several strong elements -- the most notable being newcomer ...

By Eric Lurio of Entertainment Insiders (7/0)
            The acting is good, and Ferril and Menzel give really good performances, while the rest, especial...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            It's lifeless kitsch.

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            The details add up to a story, but it's not cohesive and fluid enough to be engaging. How are we ...

By Frank Lovece of Film Journal International (7/0)
            Supporting characters float in and disappear without rhyme, reason or resolution.

By Jay Antani of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            gravely calls into question Towne's current abilities as both a screenwriter and director.

By Brian Orndorf of FilmJerk.com (7/0)
            Anytime Farrell and Hayek decide to play up their sexuality, that's cause to dance in the streets

By Edward Havens of FilmJerk.com (7/0)
            A stylistic triumph, one whose story and character shortcomings are overcompensated with lush vis...

By Richard Horgan of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            In trying to revisit L.A. once more, the 71-year-old Towne fails to bring to life a more arcane s...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
            Farrell pulls off here what is unfortunately all too rare in film acting: he understands the char...

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            Despite its flaws, this story of love and self-discovery is still more smart, stylish, and sexy t...

By Peter Bradshaw of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
            It is a odd-sounding, odd-looking piece of work, not uninteresting by any means, but there is som...

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            Stay clear of movies [like this one] that are cast more for star power than for matches with the ...

By Jim Slotek of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            Just a mess.

By David Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (7/0)
            Robert Towne has some terrific films to his credit, including the classic "Chinatown" and later "...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Jeanne Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (7/0)
            This is not a movie for the masses. It is, however, a small film about real life hardships and th...

By Nick Schager of Lessons of Darkness (7/0)
            Generates all the heat of a snow cone.

By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            The movie's mood can carry it only so far and can't overcome a listless pace, jumpy narrative and...

By Kevin Crust of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            A film of great beauty with unfulfilled promise -- a disappointment, but with much to recommend a...

By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (7/0)
            A lush ode to optimism, opportunity and the American dream.

By Peter Debruge of Miami Herald (7/0)
            Fante would never approve, governed as he was by a crushing fear of phoniness.

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Michele Kenner of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            Widely known as a script doctor, Towne could have used one himself in bringing Fante's story to t...

By Marty Mapes of Movie Habit (7/0)
            A pulpy, hard-boiled, ironic tale but with a happy ending

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (7/0)
            Something is missing, though. The themes are all there, but the movie doesn’t cross the blood-bra...

By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (7/0)
            Towne ... has turned Fante's glorious howl into a requiem for a city and those who escape its gil...

By Gene Seymour of Newsday (7/0)
            Farrell and Hayek seem too luminous for their downbeat surroundings. But they persuasively work t...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            As arid as its title...not only woefully old-fashioned but emotionally opaque, with characters th...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Scott Tobias of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            Towne draws out the era's rampant poverty and ethnic divisions through a story that plays to his ...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            A minimalist melodrama that's badly frayed at the seams and threatening to unravel.

By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            Eventually, I was on the edge of my seat... wondering what kind of wrong choice Towne could possi...

By Gary Goldstein of Reel.com (7/0)
            Maybe on the page the lean story had some life, but on film the thing is D.O.A.

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            [Director Robert Towne] may have been passionate about the project but that passion does not mate...

By Donald J. Levit of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Whereas good noir dialogue has a biting, sardonic edge, here the self-conscious literary-ness fal...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            Towne has not given us the great American love story, but he has presented us with a captivating ...

By Forrest Hartman of Reno Gazette-Journal (7/0)
            The characters are well drawn, but their relationships are not, making the viewing experience pas...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            The film, which is literary to a fault, includes an earthquake, but if the earth moves at all, th...

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            The elements never quite come together, and the main characters never quite spring to life.

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            The overwrought performances by Farrell and Hayek, in a no-holds-barred duel of eyebrows, turn th...

By Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            Farrell isn't living up to his hype. He's inheriting the mantle from Andy Garcia as the world's o...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            Towne's script somehow can never put us in his hero's mind, his actions are always incomprehensib...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            As a film, Ask the Dust is uneven; as a labor of love, it's a beauty.

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            This film is too dull to really spring to life.

By Keith Uhlich of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            How long can one man piggyback on the success of Chinatown? The beat goes on...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            An excessively melodrama story filled with cliches about writing.

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            It takes more than just having a beautiful couple to make a great movie (or even a good movie).

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Edward Lawrenson of Time Out (7/0)
            Although Chinatown writer Towne lovingly depicts the Depression-era LA setting (actually shot in ...

By Tony Medley of tonymedley.com (7/0)
            (Towne's) recreation of 1931 Los Angeles is stunning...(but) the movie itself (is) glacially slow...

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            Serves as an elegy for both the city that has long informed Towne's best work as well as his care...

By J. Hoberman of Village Voice (7/0)
            Fueled by shame and prejudice, the doomed relationship of these two proud self-haters is more dru...

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
            You get to see Hayek naked, and Ask The Dust still doesn't seem worth the price of admission!

By Ann Hornaday of Washington Post (7/0)
            Ask the Dust is one of the most eagerly awaited cinematic projects of 2006, which may be why it l...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Dan Fienberg of Zap2it.com (7/0)
            The film shows exactly the kind of cinematic craftsmanship you might expect from this kind of pas...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            Fante's novel comes to the screen as if dipped in butterscotch: Its abrasive surface has been coa...

By Annlee Ellingson of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            Despite acute period detail and gorgeous desert cinematography by Caleb Deschanel from a South Af...

By Pablo Villaca of Cinema em Cena (3/4) No reference
            Termina numa nota amarga; não em função de sua história, mas da promessa não realizada de se reve...

By Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper (3/4) No reference
            It’s a strange, off-beat story.

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (3/4) No reference
            As stale, deluded, and sad as the cot in an old man's flophouse cubicle.

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            Utterly forgettable.

By Scott Foundas of L.A. Weekly (3/4) No reference
            If the end result isn’t quite a great movie, it’s indisputably a reverential one,

By Jami Bernard of New York Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Atmospheric but awkward drama.

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            Watching it is like being in a restaurant where the waiter brings out a luscious platter of food,...

By Lisa Rose of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            The hard-boiled prose is translated into a schmaltzy movie with too much sap and not enough grit.

By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            Miscast, constricted, loose in tone and meandering in intent, it has far fewer moments of inspira...

                         Reviews of Ask the Dust
By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            Who would have guessed that Robert Towne, the writer of Chinatown, could make a movie as awful as...

By Carrie Rickey of Philadelphia Inquirer (3/4) No reference
            Farrell and costar Salma Hayek have rarely been so affecting, or so effective, as self-hating eth...

By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (3/4) No reference
            Ask the Dust has occasional lapses in energy, sagging noticeably about the two-thirds mark. Still...

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            With its sunset colors and haunting music, Ask the Dust is very beautiful. And very empty.

By Josh Larsen of Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (3/4) No reference
            If only writing in real life could be as romantic as it often is in the movies.

By Angela Baldassarre of Sympatico.ca (3/4) No reference
            In "Ask the Dust" you get to see Farrell and Hayek cavorting naked in the waves of the Pacific.

Movie Distributors
Paramount Vantage

Production Companies
Ascendant Pictures
VIP Medienfonds Film & Entertainment (VIP Media Funds)

Movie Studios
Paramount Vantage