Does anyone even remember “The Burning Plain” at this point?
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 true genius behind the films, that culminated in Arriago’s banishment from the “Babel” screening at Cannes (ugly), and so the author struck out on his own.
“The Burning Plain,” his directorial effort starring Charlize Theron, had its North American debut at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival where we saw it. It wasn’t a bad picture, in fact, some of it was tremendously moving, but it failed to excite us compared to some of other pictures at the festival (which is always the downside of a film fest, a strong, but not amazing film sometimes being left behind in the dust). It also didn’t help, the the director/writer wasn’t really saying anything new, using the same “everything’s-connected” interwoven tapestries tricks he’s so fond of. It is the type of film that deserves to be seen and judged on its own, so perhaps critics seeing it for the first time this fall might have a different perspective, but we can’t say we loved it.
Still, now the film has a September 18 release date via Magnolia pictures and a trailer, albeit, one with Spanish subtitles, but since much of the film is spoken in English, you should be able to hang with it. The picture is basically about two separate love stories that span two not-so-distant generations and how the two tales connect is eventually revealed as the picture progresses somewhat like a mystery. It also co-stars Kim Basinger, newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, established Latin actor Joaquim de Almeida (“Che”) and José María Yazpik among others.
Hans Zimmer and Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez, co-wrote the score, but it wasn’t entirely memorable to be completely honest.
