Ask the Dust

Robert Towne won an Oscar in 1974 for his script for Chinatown, a film about the corrupt Los Angeles underworld of the mid-1930s. Towne returns to the scene of his greatest triumph, writing and directing Ask the Dust, a fairly doomed period movie about a doomed romance. Colin Farrell plays a wannabe Depression-era writer whose plans are complicated when he gets involved with Salma Hayek, a Mexican waitress with dreams of marrying a rich American. Shot in the same Southern California neighborhoods as Chinatown, the classic Jack Nicholson gem casts a huge shadow over this noble but troubled film version of John Fante’s acclaimed novel. The slow-moving adaptation doesn’t sizzle—outside of Farrell's intense sex scene with Hayek, who also has a hot nude scene in the Pacific Ocean. The movie ain't much, but that scene alone is almost worth the price of admission.