Babel writer Guillermo Arriaga’s directing debut The Burning Plain is a sophisticated and meandering tale of love and loss, writes Sarah Gordon
Sylvia (Charlize Theron) is a troubled restaurant manager whose past comes back to haunt her when a Mexican man turns up on her doorstep opening the floodgates to painful memories. Taking the audience on a journey linking Sylvia to an assortment of supposedly disparate characters as they battle with their own romantic demons, director Guillermo Arriaga follows a similar structure to his previous screenplays Babel and Amores Perros.
We meet Maria, a young Mexican girl who lives with her father and his best friend until a tragic accident occurs. In a New Mexico border town, Mariana and Santiago find love in the aftermath of their parents’ sudden deaths and bored housewife Gina has embarked on an ultimately doomed affair which forces the characters on a course they cannot turn back from.
The film transcends time as it follows the different strands of the story played out against the contrasting landscapes of Oregon and New Mexico. Its twists and turns keep the audience hooked while still allowing time to explore and understand the characters which make up the four different threads of the story.
The audience joins the characters as they discover more about each other, slowly opening up and allowing us to understand why they are the way they are. Theron packs a punch as the lynchpin of the plot, Sylvia; her harsh exterior slowly melting as we learn more about her past. Despite its different stories and timelessness she holds the different strands of the story together, following the characters’ journeys to their ultimate crescendo.
Arriaga is on form with this film, once again turning the traditional linear approach to film-making on its head while still successfully managing to lose the audience in the plot. You cannot help but warm to the love stories of young Maria and her father and Mariana and Santiago, two young lovers finding solace in each other after their tragic losses.
Kim Basinger also shines as the unhappy wife who finds true love in the most unlikely of places and embarks on a passionate affair. The doomed romance is not what it at first seems and the audience begins to sympathise with her as she reveals more of herself to her lover.
The film is a delight to watch, beautifully shot with a well chosen mix of big name and unknown actors to play the principal characters. Although there are dark undertones, the film is ultimately about love in its different forms and its affect on one woman throughout her life. Congratulations to Arriaga on his directorial debut.
The Burning Plain (cert: TBC) is released on March 13.
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