Ask the Dust

The film is an overwrought mess....The secondary characters are more interesting and sympathetic, especially Donald Sutherland's boozy flophouse resident and a disfigured housekeeper played by Idina Menzel ("Rent").....his efforts to throw in elements of racial prejudice fail miserably..... ... Full Review

Everybody in "Ask the Dust" suffers from outsiders' disease. Ask the Dust" tackles large subjects: prejudice learned and unlearned, love's healing balm. As for Hayek, she is playing a character described by Fante as "not beautiful. ... Full Review

Like his CGI-enhanced rendition of Depression-era LA, Towne's direction gives off warm and fuzzy vibes that are all but visible, and his good intentions cast a stodgy pall. A Mexican waitress (Salma Hayek) and a disfigured Jewish woman (Idina Menzel) distract the hero before ending up as sacrifices to his artistic self-discovery. ... Full Review

Still, Towne is far too gifted a writer for the film to really be deemed an utter failure. In fact, Ask the Dust proves most successful when it's not mired in the love story at its core. Hayek is good, if a bit too gorgeous for the role. ... Full Review

Moments like that one punctuate these ten episodes, riffs on recent current events that create a window onto an alternate universe where honesty and integrity matter more among those elected to lead us than cronyism, gamesmanship, and coddling lobbyists, as embodied here by the villain, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland [ Ask the Dust ], having fun as a bad guy), who does his best to trip up the president at every juncture. ... Full Review

Where the film does succeed is its great film noir look at Depression Era Los Angeles. Ask the Dust" truly becomes a ´feel-bad´ kind of film. Ask the Dusk" makes no attempt at brining a feel-good sense to the film. ... Full Review

The film thrives beautifully in showing its misery.....Where the film does succeed is its great film noir look at Depression Era Los Angeles.....the film becomes difficult to watch as it is an education in meanness.....In "Ask the Dusk," you are pulled into the misery of the Depression Era writer....It is not a comfortable looking place to live in and serves nicely to give the miserable characters a miserable era and place to populate..... ... Full Review

None of this warrants the near two-hour running time, however, while Farrell is woefully miscast as the callow hero. Returning to the period Los Angeles of Polanski's classic, strikingly recreated in South Africa, Towne's fourth outing as director sees Colin Farrell's would-be author embarking on a tempestuous relationship with Hayek's Mexican waitress. ... Full Review

There's no one to blame for how Ask the Dust never becomes greater than the sum of its many great parts.....There's Donald Sutherland, turning in perhaps his second best performance ever (after last year's Pride & Prejudice ) as Arturo's withered neighbor in a shabby Bunker Hill boardinghouse..... ... Full Review

this otherwise sumptuous film....the great pleasures of the film....Ask the Dust" is a stylistic triumph, one whose story and character shortcomings are overcompensated with lush visuals, a haunting score and a trio of strong performances....a better writer.... ... Full Review