Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I got a few angry letters today from people claiming that I’d intentionally scuttled Arriaga’s directorial debut, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. I ran a fairly negative review for it last night, but I also said quite clearly that I’m a fan of Arriaga’s work, and looking forward to this film. Now we’ve got a second review of the film, and it’s far more positive than the first one. I’d recommend reading both for comparison, and of course, keeping an open mind as Arriaga works to finish this before release:
Hi Moriarty— I'm not sure if you post "arthouse" reviews but I caught a screening of "The Burning Plain" on Wednesday at the Laemmle in Pasadena. Here is my review (if you post this, refer to me Jake the Snake): The Burning Plain is a mysterious melodrama that opens with a shot of a trailer home, sitting alone in a vast field, engulfed in flames (hence the title). Then suddenly takes us to a very different world--a world of cool blues and never-ending rain, where Sylvia, a troubled 30something (Charlize Theron), lives two lives: on the one hand, she runs a high-end restaurant with ease; on the other hand, she's clearly troubled by something--she contemplates suicide. Meanwhile, we get three other stories that seem to be more interrelated than Sylvia's. First, Gina (Kim Basinger), a housewife with a brood of four kids who's recovering from surgery for breast cancer, is having an affair with Nick, a Mexican-American from the local town (played by the great Joachim de Almeida from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER). We also follow Gina's daughter, Mariana, in the aftermath of her mother's death (we learn that she died in the eponymous trailer from the opening shot). As she's grieving, she encounters Santiago, the son of Nick (who died with Gina in the fire) and the two embark on a tentative romance. They're both extremely conscious of their situation--the children of two people who were having the affair that upended their lives and their families. We also meet a grown-up Santiago, who's now a crop-duster in Mexico with a daughter. When his plane crashes and he's hospitalized, he sends his friend, along with his daughter, to go find her mother in the US. Just as you're starting to think this is going to be another three-part story like the director's other movies (he was the writer of BABEL, 21 GRAMS, and best of all AMORES PERROS), you start to realize that the stories aren't disconnected at all--they're just in different time periods. So in a way, this movie has more to do with MEMENTO than those other movies, because it's more about memory, about how things in the past affect matters in the present, than it is about things in one story causing things in another (for instance, the sale of the gun by the Japanese guy to the Moroccans in BABEL). I don't want to give away too much because the gradual revelation of how the stories are interconnected will hit you hard (the gasps among the audience members were audible). Let's just say that Sylvia's depression from the beginning of the film turns out to be very much earned by events in her past. Overall, I found this film more affecting than BABEL, though I'm not sure anything can top AMORES PERROS (and this movie is very different from that--more emotional, less pulpy). This film, more than any of those, adds up to something in one character rather than just making several comments on a theme. It should also be noted that the style is very different from those movies--the filmmaker uses very subtle camera movement to show characters' frames of mind (rather than the elusive handheld of BABEL). People generally seemed pretty moved by it--there are uncomfortable moments in the movie and I could hear some rustling but at the end there was a huge round of applause. It's always interesting to see what a writer can do on his own and it seems like Arriaga has really found a style and a voice that's different from the movies he wrote--this one doesn't let style or technique get in the way of the drama. Overall, I definitely recommend this one. Jake the snake
