Review of The Burning Plain (2008) by Derek C — 06 Feb 2009

After a all-too-public riff with collaborator-director Inarritu, writer-director Guerillmo Arriaga pulls double-duty as writer and director. And because this picture still hasn't found a distributor should clue you in to the many problems with this one-trick pony.

With flashes of nice cinematography and an interesting (for a telenovela) story, Arriaga decides to let his pony out of the stable to feed. I don't know if it's the bad editing, but anybody can see the ending through the first 30 minutes. As each painful scene tries to outdo the previous one, the ending finally comes. And then another. Finally, every character, including each viewer, falls victim to Arriaga incessant need to exercise his masochistic desire. The characters, including Theron, are heartless and maniacal, without a sense of life, vitality, and passion that is filled with his other films. The payoff, however expected, isn't satisfying. Considering Arriaga ventured away from Camp Inarritu by writing the script of "The Three Burials of Meliquiades Estrada" for director Tommy Lee Jones, I know Arriaga's talents exist outside the collaboration with Inarritu, but this isn't evidence of such a powerful writer. He uses (narrative) time-shifting as a crutch, where in previous films (i.e. "21 Grams", "Amores Perros"), he uses it so the viewer can infer more information about the present. It's unnecessary and the film should have been told linearly, though Arriaga would have been made aware at the fact that the story isn't worth telling in the first place, let alone watching.

Theron: movies can be happy. Go make a romantic-comedy and quit putting yourself through so much acting-pain for an Oscar.