User reviews

Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, the one of "21 Grams", employs a very peculiar narrative style to tell stories of different characters, Charlize Theron's Sylvia, Jennifer Lawrence's Marina, and Kim Basinger's Gina. At first everything seems a bit messy (various threads seemingly insignificant) but then the plot gets poignant though a little oppressive. Acting performances are affecting and strong (especially Charlize Theron), the tone is progressively melodramatic. It's undeniable that The Burning Plain possesses the style of a strong drama, never run-of-the-mill and with an emotional resonance resembling 21 Grams. Overall a very good sad film, with a finale that strikes a lot.

The writer Guillermo Arriaga, much famed for his trilogy of films with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, namely Amores Perros, 21 grams and Babel, steps behind the camera and debuts his own directing skills with 'The Burning Plain' a multi-layered affair that at its core tries to explore how we deal with guilt. If you didn't like the style of the afore mentioned films then chances are you wont get on with this either. The story is told in interweaving flashbacks and over different time periods and does require some work on the part of the viewer. But with plot pieces trickled out like a breadcrumb trail right up to the end, a great but subtle score and some breathtaking scenery it grips you as you slowly piece it all together. Added to that there are the two brilliant central performances from Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, as the damaged mother and daughter and a supporting cast that in their various roles are also superb especially Jennifer Lawrence who rightly won an award at the Venice Film Festival. The cinematography is great and the colours are so warm you can almost feel the Mexican heat coming out of the screen. The direction while not quite as good as Inarritu proves that Arriaga was indeed paying attention and the overall feel is eerily similar. The only downside is that it does leave certain characters stories unfinished but that really is just a minor quibble in what is a very emotionally charged and challenging film.

The Burning Plain (2008)

Following a growing trend toward taking a straight forward story and making it complicated by telling it out of order, The Burning Plain might have shown the fault lines in that method. And it's not that the story, a kind of Romeo and Juliet with child story, isn't riveting. It is. And it's not that the telling of it isn't interesting. It is. But the telling is so forcefully complicated, it draws attention to itself, and away from the more human drama that is at work.

That said, it's also true that every high point here there is a storytelling gaffe. The cross cultural Mexican/American themes are generally underplayed (the exception being the insults thrown at the funeral), and convincing. The basic love story is strong enough, too, and given a nice second layer through time, as you'll see. But there are some quirks that are made both improbable and overly dramatic. One of the tenderhearted heros of the story is shown too visibly as a disturbed stalker. And the lead woman, played with a kind of virtuosic exuberance as usual by Charlize Theron, has almost too much to juggle, emotionally and literally. It just doesn't wash.

Most troubling is the writing. Not the big picture, the plot and the large sequence of events, but the actually dialog. This kind of gritty and dire movie laced with real love has to be convincing above all, and there are dozens of moments and individual lines that just smack as screen writing rather than real characters thinking and speaking.

So it's a mixed bag. An ambitious and promising mixed bag, with some moving and beautiful moments. I think it's worth seeing, but with tolerance.

Films about interlocked fragmented stories aren't anything new to writer and director Guillermo Arriaga. As director, 'The Burning Plain' is his first feature film and its quite apparent that he has poured his heart into it. Here too the film involves three stories that are told separately but linked by the first scene.

However, the non-linearity of storytelling is initially confusing but once the tragic link is made apparent, the gut-wrenching conclusion (that explains the explosion shown in the first scene) hits the viewer hard. The setting is very simplistic but rich in atmosphere especially with the dark subtle undertones. The beautiful score contributes well.

Arriaga has gathered an impressive ensemble of actors who deliver wonderfully understated performances. Charlize Theron portrays Sylvia with a subtle intensity. Kim Basinger is skillfully restrained and Jennifer Lawrence shows tremendous potential. John Corbett, Robin Tunney, José María Yazpik, Rachel Ticotin, Brett Cullen, Tessa Ia and Joaquin de Almeida provide great support.

Despite the initial confusion, the narrative is strong. There are a few clichés that could have been avoided, such as the confession scene in the hospital, but these are very minor and don't effect the impact of the film. In the end, 'The Burning Plain' is a solid film.

This is a strange movie. If your a fan of the Babel or other work by Guillermo Arriaga, then you will be satisfied with this movie. If your a fan of Charlise Theron then you be satisfied with this movie. If your looking for a gripping drama about how a tragedy affects the lives of different people you will be satisfied. However, if you looking for a good intense drama, this movie will leave you unsatisfied unless you can get over the very disjointed beginning and follow the movie to the end.

I think you have to be familiar with Arriaga's films to really like this movie. He weaves stories together without any thought of a time line and it can make a movie seem very strange. However, if you will follow this movie to the end, it is a good movie. The Acting especially by Theron is outstanding. Give this movie a chance and its enjoyable. Not a masterpiece, but enjoyable.

The pace of the film (probably due to poor editing) is inconsistent. The first half of the film is engrossing, but the second half can be easily predicted. A lot of scenes of the second half can be edited out. Apart from the poor editing, the story itself and the way the story was told are intriguing. The film is women centric and portrays many issues concerning women: breast cancer, housework/chores, mother-daughter relationship, postnatal depression etc.. Charlize Theron suits the leading role particularly after her outstanding performance in the film Monster. But there again exists inconsistency of her appearance in the film (probably due to make-up/lighting filming) - sometimes she appears younger and sometimes older. It's understandable as the director's debut, but I think the director needs to work harder in order to coherently deliver an engaging and technically sound film.

The movie reminded me of Babel, which is not that crazy since Arriaga wrote and directed Babel together with Alejandro González Iñárritu. (I only found this out after I saw The Burning Plain). Whereas I thought Babel was good but not superb, I absolutely loved The Burning Plain. just like Babel, The Burning Plain doesn't do chronology and I love the way Arriaga uses the lack of a chronological time-line to put you on a sidetrack time and time again. Of course I suspected things but I completely missed one of the biggest twists. Past and present are so mixed up that it isn't until quite far into the movie that you realise how all the characters are connected. And in this connection you'll find the big difference between the two movies. Whereas Babel shows the stories of people that are only connected by coincidence, The Burning Plain goes much further than that. When, almost in the end, you find out what really happened you cannot but acknowledge the genius of the person who wrote the story and the stylish way the movie was directed.

Once the 'big twist' is revealed it was like an 'aha-Erlebnis'. From beginning until ending you are wondering about the connections between the characters. "What does Sylvia have to do with Mariana and Santiago, or with Gina and Nick"? When eventually you find out, it is like a puzzle with the last piece falling in place. The result is a beautiful picture with a sad undertone, but not one I would have wanted to miss.

Is there not enough chaos in the world without subjecting movie audiences to this kind of jumbled tripe? Apparently it is now chic and intellectually heroic to make a story nearly unintelligible, thereby proving one's belongingness into Hollywood weirdness. The timeline of the story is cut and pasted into a kaleidoscope of utter nonsense. Enough of this deconstructed reality. I suppose we will never see a straightforward story again from this team. Yes, if you give it enough time, assuming you have enough time, the story might make some sense. Like Godot, you will have to wait a very long, long time.

Guillermo Arriaga was the writer for Inarritu's films (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) and directs here for the first time on a major film project. "The Burning Plain" plays out over thirteen years, although all the action is squeezed into two segments at each end of the time span. The film relates how an extra-marital affair has repercussions which echo through the following years. The chain of events is initiated when Gina, a housewife and mother, embarks on a romance with Nick, a Mexican with a family of his own. After a gas tank explosion kills the lovers while they make love in a remote desert trailer, Gina's traumatized teenage daughter Mariana becomes friends with Nick's son Santiago.

Arriaga focuses on the mother, daughter and grand-daughter as the story unfolds. He uses four actresses for their roles - two being required for the teenage Mariana and her 30-something persona - and all of them (Kim Basinger, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence and Tessa la) give exceptional performances. When Mariana first sees evidence of her mother's infidelity, she remains silent and carries the burden alone. The breach between them widens as she investigations and confirms her suspicions - and the youthful beauty of her face transforms into a mask as she conceals knowledge which could destroy her family. Arriaga portrays her dilemma with a delicacy that amplifies the girl's pain - showing the silent spread of the poison, its contagion first claiming the mother-daughter relationship, and then creating new ripples of damage which will ultimately infect the next generation.

The narrative is tighter than Arriaga's work with Inarritu - it illustrates how one transgression can set in motion the engine of fate. He relies on classic cinematic techniques rather than Inarritu's flashier ones - but as in his previous work, Arriaga breaks up the story's chronological flow by chopping back and forth between two time segments. One can't help wondering if it was necessary here, since the story possesses such a strong arc. However, this is just a quibble - "The Burning Plain" results in something close to a masterpiece which shares themes found in the work of Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and Dostoevsky.

Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's big-screen collaborations with director Alejandro González Iñárritu have produced a trio of highly accomplished films - "Amores Perros", "21 Grams", and "Babel" – that juxtaposed several story lines, all tied together by characters who were damaged souls in search of redemption and connection with one another. Although the two had a very public falling-out, Arriaga still appears to be strongly influenced by his former partner's jumbled film-making style as he takes over the director's chair with this 2009 drama. The chief problem, however, is that Arriaga doesn't really show Iñárritu's passion and audacity as he attempts to pull off the considerable demands of a non-linear narrative with conviction. Moreover, Arriaga the screenwriter lets down Arriaga the director with a script that ultimately feels too predictable and contrived despite strong performances from the cast.

There looks to be four separate stories at the outset, which eventually transitions into two. The first involves Sylvia, the manager of an upscale, seaside restaurant in Portland, an extremely pained woman who prefers casual sex followed by self-inflicted punishment. She is obviously anguished over something that motivates her erratic behavior. The second thread takes place in New Mexico near the Mexican border where Gina, an unhappily married mother of four, is carrying on an affair with a local man named Nick, also married with children. The complication here is that her daughter Mariana finds out about the affair and embarks on a relationship with Nick's son Santiago. Meanwhile, in Mexico, a crop-duster plane crash-lands on an open field, as his twelve-year-old daughter Maria watches in horror.

Arriaga's fractured approach works for a little while albeit in an emotionally draining, humorless way. However, when the moment of revelation arrives (and much too early), the plot unravels into a Lifetime TV-movie level of sanctimony obscured by the fiery explosion that gives the movie its name. Proving yet again that a beautiful woman can convincingly expose the torment of a soul under fire, Charlize Theron successfully makes the nihilistic Sylvia an ultimately sympathetic figure. Kim Basinger, looking entirely too stunning and wrinkle-free at 55 to be a K-Mart-shopping housewife, manages to get to the heart of a guilt-ridden woman, even as she shows Gina going through the predictable machinations of her illicit actions.

The stand-out performance, however, comes from Jennifer Lawrence, a Jewel-look-alike, as the troubled teen Mariana, the dramatic pivot for the whole movie. Tessa Ia makes a strong impression as the pensive Maria, while the men barely make a ripple – John Corbett as a smitten sous-chef in Sylvia's restaurant, Joaquim de Almeida as the passionate Nick, José María Yazpik as the go-between Carlos, and Danny Pino as the pilot. The one exception is J.D. Pardo who plays Santiago as the impetuous Romeo to Lawrence's Juliet. Robin Tunney shows up in a smallish role as Sylvia's one true friend. Robert Elswit and John Toll share cinematography responsibilities here, and they do an excellent job capturing all the locales. At the end of the movie, I couldn't help thinking that Arriaga's yin was fundamentally missing Iñárritu's yang.

I'm not stupid. Really I'm not. Ask anyone.

But while this movie was kind of entertaining and was well acted, at least by Charlize Theron, it was incredibly confusing and very difficult to follow, jumping around continually from one period to another with no obvious reason for doing so. It was difficult to be at all sure who was who and what was what and ultimately, for me, that made it just plain annoying.

It's NOT a movie I'm ever likely to watch again.

JMV.

The Burning Plain, a romantic mystery about a woman on the edge who takes an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life. Written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel). It is a heart breaking, touching movie. It follows the formula of having a main story with various sub-stories that in the end their paths are crossed. The rhythm is a little slow, it continuously changes from story to story making it hard to follow and a little boring at some moments. The cast is good. Charliza Theron, Kim Basinger John Corbett, Robin Tunney, Jose Maria Yazpik, everyone delivering very convincing performances although some of them are a little overacted as well. In conclusion, If you've seen Babel or 21 Grams or Amores Perros, all of them written by Ariaga, then you know what to expect with The Burning Plain

I liked it, but I kinda was hoping that older Santiago, and Mariana had one interaction together at the end when they find out he's awake. That bothered me, but oh well lol

This is the first feature directing experience for Guillermo Arriaga. Already an established writer (Amores Perros, Babel, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), Arriaga promisingly directs his own script in this movie. The movie follows the characteristic feature of Arriaga's script: fragmented stories, sometimes happening simultaneously, and sometimes happening at different time periods. The editing is intriguing, prompting you to try and seek connections between the different stories. The performances are amazing (especially Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger's). The landscape choices and the cinematography are beautiful. The Burning Plain is a poignant story about desperation, betrayal, trauma, revenge, guilt and self-hatred, with the stories of three female characters and different "plains" burningly interwoven to deliver a moving depiction of these themes... Highly recommended!

The movie is told in a non-linear time jumbo. Sylvia (Charlize Theron) runs a high class restaurant with friend Laura (Robin Tunney). She is emotionally damaged and has non-committal sex with strangers. Her boyfriend John (John Corbett) is furious. She gets a ride from Carlos. Carlos has been looking for her but he doesn't speak English. He has brought her abandoned daughter Maria. In a desert New Mexico town, Gina (Kim Basinger) is having an affair with Nick Martinez (Joaquim de Almeida). Her daughter Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) finds out and their love-nest trailer explodes in flames killing both. Mariana and Nick's son Carlos (José María Yazpik) begin a relationship.

The time jumbo doesn't help the lack of tension. Sylvia's nihilist existence has some intrigue but the jumping around highlights the search for connections between the different periods more than advance the character study. There is a mystery twist but that requires Theron and Lawrence to be the same. It's not a failure but it is a stretch. I doubt she got plastic surgery. The story may be more compelling told in a straight forward timeline.

I loved how the stories are connected. How at first you'd think it's a three different stories drama, but throughout the movie you realize they are all tied up together.

The twist knot is held by three talented charismatic actresses.