We’ve mentioned it ad nauseam. Multiple story-strand loving writer Guillermo Arriaga used to pen stories for Alejandro Iñárritu, director of “Babel,” “21 Grams,” and “Amores Perros,” but the two had a stupid falling out over who was the genius behind the films that culminated in Arriago’s banishment from the “Babel” screening at Cannes, and so the author struck out on his own.
“The Burning Plain” is Arriaga’s directorial debut, which stars Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. The Mexican writer seemingly can’t stop himself from writing in everything’s-connected interwoven tapestries and his debut is no different.
The intersection of this narrative centers of three seemingly separate stories – a mother of four in New Mexico (or Arizona; the desert) played by Basinger who is having an affair with a Mexican man; another Mexican son and daughter duo (he’s a crop duster); and, Theron as an emotionally frayed woman on the edge in the rainy Pacific Northwest who sleeps with anyone who expresses interest.
The story begins with the adulterous couple having an accident in the desert that begets two funerals and tears two families apart. To get into the intricacies in the story is too difficult and full of spoiler potential but suffice to say, as Arriaga is pathologically won’t to do, every story is connected and a tighter than we initially suspect.
Spanning about 12 years, this length of time being fairly new to the Arriaga bent, the filmmaker’s first foray into directing is mannered and patient with a strong inclination towards classic storytelling, but it didn’t really move us like it aspired to.
At just under two hours the slow-moving ‘Plain’ wasn’t tedious, but it didn’t exactly move at a brisk pace and felt like it was more like 2 hours plus.
The performances were solid; the cinematography by Oscar winner Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood”) was great, especially the haunted blue hues of Seattle/Portland; and the story familiar, but not predictably contrived. Fine, fine, fine, but that it didn’t hook us emotionally on any real resonant level is probably the film’s Achilles heel.
It wasn’t a bad film by any mean, but a little dull and unremarkable. Maybe if we hadn’t already absorbed over two dozen films in the last two week, it might have stood out more, but as it stands we weren’t dazzled.
Also, let’s note: yeah it was an 11am screening, but, the theater was still half empty. The score might have been credited to Hans Zimmer and Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez, but honestly, we could hear more plaintive guitar from Rodriguez than we could any familiar Zimmer notes. Maybe it’s just because he’s a bigger name in this world and therefore gets top billing. [B]