This is not a movie for the masses. It is, however, a small film about real life hardships and their tragic consequences.
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03/20/06
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Ask the Dust (2005)
37
%
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Reviews Counted:101
Fresh:37
Rotten:64
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Though Hayek is luminous, Farrell seems miscast, and the film fails to capture the gritty, lively edginess of the book upon which it's based.
Theatrical Release:Mar 10, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $630,802
Synopsis: From the director of CHINATOWN comes a tale of small-town dreams and big-city challenges. Colin Farrell plays a down-and-out writer in 1930s L.A. who dreams of making it big, and Salma Hayek plays... [More]
Starring: Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins
Director: Robert Towne
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Reviews for Ask the Dust
Robert Towne has some terrific films to his credit, including the classic "Chinatown" and later "The Firm"---- "Ask the Dust" is not one of them.
03/20/06
[A] sexy, sensual, romantic, nostalgic adaptation of the novel ...
03/18/06
Top Critic... not for all tastes but far from flavorless.
03/18/06
Top CriticWhether or not you're familiar with John Fante, if you like novels, you'll like Ask the Dust.
03/18/06
Top CriticAsk the Dust requires an audience with a special love for film noir, with a feeling for the loneliness and misery of the writer, and with an understanding that any woman he meets will be beautiful.
03/18/06
Top Critic... after an hour or so, Ask the Dust seems to have said everything, and the air starts to seep out of its hermetic atmosphere.
03/18/06
Top CriticThe fact is, there's something sadly lifeless about Ask the Dust.
03/17/06
Top CriticAs a film, Ask the Dust is uneven; as a labor of love, it's a beauty.
03/17/06
Farrell isn't living up to his hype. He's inheriting the mantle from Andy Garcia as the world's oldest promising newcomer.
03/17/06
Top CriticMiscast, constricted, loose in tone and meandering in intent, it has far fewer moments of inspiration than unintended laughter.
03/17/06
Fante would never approve, governed as he was by a crushing fear of phoniness.
03/17/06
Just a mess.
03/17/06
It is to the credit of Towne and his cast ... that Ask the Dust is able to convey Fante's passion without making it seem affected.
03/17/06
Top CriticWhat gives Ask the Dust its quiet vitality -- beyond Farrell's muscular yet delicate portrayal -- is the fear of failing to grasp the brass ring that appears through much of the movie.
03/17/06
If only writing in real life could be as romantic as it often is in the movies.
03/17/06
Towne gets L.A. (that strange combination of wide-open spaces and close-quarter moral rot) like nobody else. Still, there's a persisting dreariness at the film's center.
03/16/06
What's surprising about the new film's vapid emptiness is that Towne also wrote the screenplay. And the writing is the film's central problem.
03/16/06
Top CriticIt isn't until the very end that somebody finally does ask the dust a question, and there's so much talking in this movie that it's a miracle the dust doesn't reply.
03/16/06
Top CriticTowne and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel beautifully capture Fante's city of the dispossessed, where the seasons never change.
03/16/06
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