Ask The Dust

Writer/director Robert Towne ("Personal Best") mucks up John Fante’s 1939 classic Depression-era novel about Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) a naive writer making his way through real and imagined traps of sunny Los Angeles. Nonstop voice-over narration clogs up Towne’s misguided rewrite that reverses the novel’s narrative significance by making Camilla (Selma Hayek) amenable to Bandini’s unromantic overtures. Colin Farrell is too self-consciously cute for the part, and Selma Hayek overstresses her character’s problematic passion. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel gives the film a saturated look that perfectly represents Los Angeles in the ‘30s. Donald Sutherland is squandered in a trivial supporting role.

Rated R, 117 mins. (C-)