ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
jimddddd
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.
Chrysanthepop
Set in the depression era, 'Ask the Dust' follows the story of a young aspiring Italian-American writer who gradually falls for a feisty immigrant waitress. The best thing about 'Ask The Dust' is Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Not only do they share an electric chemistry but their scenes together are the highlight of the film because of their restrained performances. Their scenes are a delight to watch.The film could have easily ended up being like a telenovella or soap opera but the two actors play their parts naturally and writer/ director Robert Towne manages to avoid romantic clichés as he lets the relationship flourish on screen. Even the love scene is suitably 'delayed' and brilliantly executed. The photography is beautiful. One of the best scenes is when Arturo and Camilla run towards the waves. While both are completely naked, the director manages to maintain the innocence of that scene without throwing in clichés.If only the film had more room for the story to develop. Many of the subplots and even the ending appeared rushed. The supporting characters, like Sutherland's Helfrick and Menzel's Rifkin, although interesting (and performed brilliantly) are poorly written. The political message that 'Ask The Dust' tries to deliver is also slightly misleading. However, Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek made this one at least worthy of a one-time watch for me.
Socratease
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.
joel-280
Gorgeous bodies, gorgeous colors and camera work, pretentious dialog, banal plot. The name of the prima donna, Camilla, and the eponymous flowers that appear frequently, are enough to remind us of the plot similarities from Dumas' novel La Dame aux Camelias, the movie Camille starring Garbo and (I think) Robert Taylor, and last but not least Verdi's opera La Traviata. Beautiful, not-too-virtuous young ladies, social outcasts for one reason or another, loved, split up, reunited just in time to die of tuberculosis in the last scene... One forgives banal plots and stupid unrealistic dialog in opera, but why waste Hayak, Don Sutherland, a beautiful rendition of LA in the 30s, a deus ex machina earthquake that conveniently kills the other woman, and all that beauty on this mediocre turkey where there isn't even any beautiful singing?
