Instant Favorite.

How sad is this?

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Poor man Bandini, all these little pigs who party all day and night long in L.A., and no one do not even invite him ! There are undoubtedly many of the small details, and that nobody really notices in this story...In fact one very great adaptation of a classic of the American literature, about which I would have only modestly that very few things to be said. Black thriller (and still), not without cynicism, the intrigue tells the story of a poor guy gone up to Los Angeles to succeed and who meets a poor girl lost by her own charm... Except that in this case, it is exactly the heroine who wins the emotional prize. Even if the fact is that the vamp Camilla Lopez, who is really beautiful to her part, is in love with an other one - what will be in a way eventually fatal to her - this protagonist is higher - in colors, more alive and unpredictable than Arturo Bandini, who is in the case of the kind to be thought of being able to obtain everything by paying invoice or grocery note. Furthermore, it is certain that his disenchanted comments, otherwise sometimes precious, may sometimes embarrass the reader.Finally whether Bandini, this author (who becomes suddenly successful and recognized) touches us, Ask the dust contains filigrame of this overflowing crudeness that we just love all somewhere although we say it and which often belongs anyway to the reality, also while giving a good place to the outsiders - what is very considerable. Finally if the book is also representative of a time(period), let us admit that it remains filled with the truth otherwise of optimism, while being also totally deprived of any stinginess either of this easy well-to-do and misplaced vanity and do-it-yourself-for-a-bestseller stuff whom we shall see moreover only more in many of these works of today! John Fante is an immense writer, and of course, the book is way better than the movie.

As a fan of John Fante's 1939 novel I've tried to watch this film several times, but I'm never able to get through it. I don't like the characters as presented here, and not for a second did I believe I was in 1930s Los Angeles. On the DVD commentary track, Robert Towne says he built the set in Cape Town, South Africa, because he couldn't find any parts of Los Angeles suitable as locations for the film. That's funny, because when Roman Polanski made Towne's "Chinatown" twenty years earlier, he had no trouble finding local places that effectively evoked the period. To make matters worse, the "Ask the Dust" movie set didn't even depict the Bunker Hill neighborhood--a real character in the book--but rather showed it only in the background as a distorted Third Street tunnel and the adjacent funicular, Angels Flight. Frankly, the Los Angeles of "Ask the Dust" couldn't have been less authentic if Towne had saved himself all the trouble and simply shot it on the Paramount back lot.

I don't like this film, but then I didn't think much of the book either which, although lauded by many as a "masterpiece", I found lacking in character development and disjointed and illogical in plot, although it was far more readable than Fante's dreadful first effort "Road to Los Angeles" not published until Fante became fashionable in the mid 80s.I was intrigued to see what sort of soup Towne would make with such meager ingredients. He has worked hard script-wise to repair the many shortcomings of the book but for my money didn't rescue it. There was never a movie in Ask the Dust while ever he tried to stay faithful to the book. I consider this film Towne's folly.In a word: forgettable.

Ask the Dust is an entirely unremarkable film. But while there may be nothing spectacular about it in the end it is a reasonably entertaining film. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but there are much worse ways to spend two hours.The film is set in Depression era Los Angeles and the attention to period detail is exceptional, 1930s L.A. brought brilliantly to life. Colin Farrell plays writer Arturo Bandini who is struggling to find inspiration that will allow him to sell some stories for some desperately needed cash. He also struggles with the prejudice he faces due to his Italian heritage. But while Italians may be looked down upon in this time and place they certainly have it better than the Mexicans. Enter Salma Hayek, playing Camilla, a waitress whose goal is to improve her standing in life by marrying a wealthy white man. But maybe just any white man will do if it allows her to become a citizen. Anyhow, Arturo and Camilla meet and although they seem to be an obvious mismatch they inevitably fall for one another. And so off we go, following this relationship which at first is rather awkward but as it evolves...well, actually it's still pretty awkward. Having to deal with prejudices, both those of outsiders and their own, was always going to make this relationship a difficult one. But the pair make it work. More or less. As you watch the two live out their cycle of coming together and drifting apart and coming together again you get the sense the film is at times just standing in place and not really moving forward. The story does drag at times but in the end it works. Barely works perhaps but it does work.Probably the best thing the movie has to offer is its stunning cinematography and period detail. But nice visuals are never enough in a film, you need the story to go with it. And the story here is passable, which is about the best that can be said for it. It never really grabs you but the movie does just enough to hold your interest. Farrell and Hayek are fine in their roles, with Hayek certainly having the Mexican spitfire role down pat by now. Donald Sutherland and Idina Menzel portray a couple of rather unique characters and do a good job with them but those roles are little more than extended cameos. For the most part this film is left to Farrell and Hayek to carry. And they do the best they can with a story which, while certainly not riveting, is interesting. In the end Ask the Dust is a reasonably decent way to spend two hours. You've seen a lot better. You've also seen a lot worse.