Ask The Dust is a period piece set in the early 30s during the Depression era in Los Angeles, California. It's a movie about how two immigrants go about achieving their American Dream. Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) is an Italian writer who dreams of fame, fortune and a buxom blonde by his side. Camilla Lopez (Salma Hayek) is a Mexican waitress who wishes to marry a rich, white American man for the betterment of her place in society. As trite as that plot sounds, there's more to it than that. The movie is also a wonderful love story among the characters as they fall in love much to their chargin. It's also a movie about displacement and how they make their mark in a society where discrimination, poverty and racism prevail.
I can relate to this movie because it parallels my life here in "modern-day America".
Ask The Dust deals about assimilation as you find a place to call home, and I'm going through that. Farrell's character, Bandini, is a struggling and starving artist who narrates his experiences, which serves as an inspiration for his novel. In a way, I can relate to that - not so much with the starving part, of course, coz that's voluntary on my end. :-P
A quote that I love from the movie was a voice over by Bandini's publisher:
"As to your anxieties about your limited experiences with life in general and women in particular, it is, alas, a truism that authors generally have less experience than other men. This owing to the incontestable fact that you simply can't be in two places at once, Mr. Bandini. Either you're in front of the typewriter, writing, or you're out in the world having experiences. Therefore, since you need to write and you need to have experiences to write about, you have to learn to do more with less. And doing more with less is, in a word, Mr. Bandini, what writing is all about."
Essentially, this movie sends a lot of messages. One, write what you know. In order to know things, you must live and experience things first and foremost. Two, don't be afraid to fall in love and say it. Three, once you fall in love, don't be ashamed by it. And most importantly, move forward. Keep on going to wherever it is you have to be, otherwise you'll just be stuck in one place until you grow old and die.
This movie isn't all that deep and profound. It's a well-acted period love story, whose cinematography is something we don't normally see these days anymore. I think it's a must-see. I don't get why it didn't rate so well in
IMDb and
RottenTomatoes.com. All traces of Colin Farrell's thick, Irish brogue is gone. He's quite dashing in this movie as the lover of man and beast alike. Salma Hayek is gorgeous. Idina Menzel is just as awesome as ever. AND THEY ALL GET NAKED IN THIS MOVIE. I swear, I don't get the hate. ;)
Click here to see my absolute favorite scene in the movie between Arturo (Farrell) and Vera (Idina Menzel!! Naturally!).
