DVD: The Writer and the Girl in the Cafe

Ask the Dust (2/5 stars)

This film, starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek, and written and directed by Robert Towne (the writer of the classic Chinatown), seemed like it might be some interesting exploration into the struggles of a writer and immigrants. However, it gets off track and instead turns into something very dull.

The story is about Arturo Bandini (Farrell), an Italian immigrant who moves to Los Angeles to attempt to become a successful writer. Obviously he stays in a burnt out hotel room; also has a few cooky neighbors (one played by Donald Sutherland) which provide slight bits of amusement for the film. He eventually meets two different women; one who is enamored with the little bit of writing he has already published but has some serious issues that I won't reveal, and another, a Mexican immigrant (Hayek) who works in a cafe that he visits to spend his last nickel. Of course, his last nickel. The story attempts to be about the problems he faces as a writer, their relationship struggles, and the intolerance both of them (especially Hayek's character) face as immigrants but it fails miserably by continuously going off track.

Much of the movie is plagued by the most irritating narration from Farrell's character, from what I can assume is from the novel he is working on throughout the book. Must every movie about writing include massive amounts of narration? In some cases (like Adaptation, because it is really funny) it works, here it just fails as it is miserably boring. The characters and the issues they face just aren't that interesting; it seems like the movie is plagued by trying to attempt to conbine too many themes (intolerance, love, and writing) without expanding any of them enough to be interesting. Pulp drama, I suppose.

The one good thing about the movie is that it looks nice, but it doesn't make up for the plodding plot and boring characters. Coming from the writer of Chinatown, I expected a lot better than this. I recommend not bothering with this one.