nightlydvdreviewThe Burning Plain
April 21st 2010 12:22
Charlize Theron as Sylvia, a woman too afraid to look into the past
Back in 2000, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu struck it big time with his directorial debut Amores Perros, which in English roughly translates to Love’s a Bitch. This was the first instalment in what Inarritu now calls his Death Trilogy, completed with 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). All three films were met with critical acclaim and all three were written by Guillermo Arriaga.
This partnership between Inarritu and Arriaga came to a head when Arriaga was banned from Cannes Film Festival during Babel’s debut screening, a decision controversially made by Inarritu who said his writer was claiming too much credit. Well, today Arriaga can safely claim sole authorial credit. The Burning Plain marks the artistic divorce of the two men and Guillermo Arriaga’s first film as director.
The screenplays for Inarritu’s Death Trilogy explored heavy themes of desperation, self-loathing and redemption at a poignant and intimate level. With The Burning Plain, Arriaga has done much the same. The seemingly disconnected past and present collide in the lives of its fractured characters. Charlize Theron is excellent in the emotionally crippled role of Sylvia, a restaurant manager who finds comfort in meaningless sex. Kim Basinger plays Gina, an all-American wife and mother of four, who finds her only happiness in an affair with a local Mexican man. The non-traditional narrative is centred on one devastating event with which Arriaga opens the film and continually revisits in flashbacks.
The Burning Plain proves that Arriaga still has one of the most original storytelling voices, but it also shows that writers are not necessarily the best directors of their own work. Ultimately, this tale turns melodramatic when it should have kept the raw emotional honesty that defined Inarritu’s directorial efforts. The result is a film that suffers from thinking that it’s far more profound than it actually is. It mightn’t be as great as 21 Grams or Babel, but at its best moments it comes close.
3 STARS
| 116 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Akito Hirata
Yeah, they definitely worked magic when they worked together.