Ask The Dust 2006

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: Fante would never approve, governed as he was by a crushing fear of phoniness. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: ... not for all tastes but far from flavorless. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Something is missing, though. The themes are all there, but the movie doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier and rev you up. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Despite fine performances and occasional moments of fascinating visual beauty, Ask the Dust is long, lazy, plotless, formless, overwrought, hysterical, unconvincing and very, very boring. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: As a film, Ask the Dust is uneven; as a labor of love, it's a beauty. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Farrell isn't living up to his hype. He's inheriting the mantle from Andy Garcia as the world's oldest promising newcomer. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's a strange, off-beat story. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Towne and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel beautifully capture Fante's city of the dispossessed, where the seasons never change. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Towne draws out the era's rampant poverty and ethnic divisions through a story that plays to his strengths as a writer and a romantic Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: 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. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: ... after an hour or so, Ask the Dust seems to have said everything, and the air starts to seep out of its hermetic atmosphere. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: A film of great beauty with unfulfilled promise -- a disappointment, but with much to recommend and be glad about. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: [A] sexy, sensual, romantic, nostalgic adaptation of the novel ... Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film is not only an evocation of a bygone era but an emanation of it as well. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: What 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. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's lifeless kitsch. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: 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. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Whether or not you're familiar with John Fante, if you like novels, you'll like Ask the Dust. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: If the end result isn't quite a great movie, it's indisputably a reverential one, Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Farrell and Hayek seem too luminous for their downbeat surroundings. But they persuasively work through their characters' knotty emotional threads. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: The hard-boiled prose is translated into a schmaltzy movie with too much sap and not enough grit. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Atmospheric but awkward drama. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Who would have guessed that Robert Towne, the writer of Chinatown, could make a movie as awful as Ask the Dust? It has it all -- one-dimensional characters, one-dimensional set and idiotically arch dialogue. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Towne has not given us the great American love story, but he has presented us with a captivating view of 1933 Los Angeles and a tale of romance that involves us in the plight of the characters. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Ask 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. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The fact is, there's something sadly lifeless about Ask the Dust. Read more

Edward Lawrenson, Time Out: Although Chinatown writer Towne lovingly depicts the Depression-era LA setting (actually shot in South Africa), the film misfires. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While the movie evokes the period well, thanks mostly to the stellar cinematography of Caleb Deschanel, it is a flawed and leaden adaptation of John Fante's seminal novel. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Hayek is in full blossom as Camilla. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Fueled by shame and prejudice, the doomed relationship of these two proud self-haters is more drunken knife fight than transcendent love affair. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Ask the Dust is one of the most eagerly awaited cinematic projects of 2006, which may be why it lands with such a curious thud. Read more