Ask the Dust | Review

Towne’s passion project not only fails to ignite, but fails to put keys in ignition.

A passion project that comes from the same city of Angels’ orange grove branch and from the same voice who brought Chinatown, Robert Towne’s newest project has been collecting dust since the 1974 chef-d’oeuvre example had its original theatrical release. An ode to an époque of black combs, top hats, dames and 5-cent coffee, older viewers will find a certain comfort zone in this film noir toned treat, but for anyone who was revved a couple years back by the likes of an L.A Confidential will think that Ask the Dust is amateurish in delivery, tone and in desperate need of some caffeination.

Los Angeles is packed with nobodies wanting to be somebody. Trying to turn a nickel into a fortune, a writer with writer’s block has got to have the best survival skills. Colin Farell plays a smooth talker who hasn’t got the best of lingoes, but fortunately his way with words doesn’t necessitate a type-writer. The words that come out of his mouth are like darts, but his ability to seduce the ladies with the sort of small talk that binds hopes with dreams means that members of the opposite sex only oblige. The eventual love and hate relationships that reveal his self-loathing and obsession and then appreciation for life is a sad story that is hard to swallow thanks to a bad screen pairing.

A monotone piece that feels like a stale piece of bread, this might have worked better during a time when 70’s producer took risks on these sort of films – here its apparent that the feeling of the epoque rests on the shoulders of Farell and Salma Hayek who trip over the subtleties of the time period, and who a unaware of how to work in the neediness, the desperation and then the passion of their characters. A flawed narration, a lack of chemistry between the two leads with only one erotic midnight swim under the beautifully tinted lighting to catch the eye, the film would have benefited from a better aesthetic treatment – even a black and white look with flourishes of color would have spun a different tale and at least supplied the film was some character and luminosity

Most surprising is that we’d figure Towne’s fountain of experience would carve out the best from John Fante’s noir novel, it may have served as great source material but the film falters because the connection between the characters and this place in history is not strong enough making the great depression looking rosy when it should have been grim-colored. At one point the film poses the question – what is more productive for a struggling writer: to live life or to write about it? A valiant effort, Ask the Dust is perhaps a project that lived a little too long in the development process.

Rating 1.5 stars