The Burning Plain Movie Review Charlize Theron & Kim Basinger

The Burning Plain (2 1/2 Stars)

Movie Review by Michael Phillips

Charlize Theron & Kim Basinger

Collaborating with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga created "Amores Perros," "21 Grams" and "Babel," powerful, critically acclaimed dramas of heart and pathos built on elaborate, interwoven tales.

They had a falling out over the director getting all the credit. And because the screenwriter also wrote the lyrical "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," Arriaga seemed to have a point.

"The Burning Plain," written and directed by Arriaga, settles the argument.

It has the same interlocking stories, the same tricks with time. There's still a chilling "big secret," and a somber tone to the drama.

But whatever it was that made those earlier films spark to life, Inarritu was the one who had it. Arriaga's drama has its moments, but it drags and stumbles between those moments.

Charlize Theron plays yet another in a line of damaged women running from their past (see "Sleepwalking," "North Country," "Monster"). But the film's storytelling tricks make it an intriguing outing for her, with a cast that includes fellow Oscar winner Kim Basinger, John Corbett and others.

Theron plays the manager of a high-end seaside restaurant, a woman with some pretty serious sexual hang-ups. She avoids close contact but submits, willingly, to casual pickups -- the rougher the better. Corbett, of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," plays a cook who is either trying to figure out why he can't get close to her or simply stalking a past conquest.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico (hello, filmmaking incentives), a tragic affair between Basinger and Joaquim de Almeida (badly used here) plays out in reverse order.

Somehow events there connect to the troubled restaurant manager.

"Burning Plain" has all the plot and character trickery of Arriaga's earlier films but none of the emotion. He wastes a good cast on characters that have no emotional resonance.

But at least he settled that argument with Inarritu. Arriaga writes marvelously intricate scripts. It takes a great director to make those scenarios sing.

"The Burning Plain" is a romantic mystery about a woman on the edge who takes an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life. Oscar-winner Charlize Theron plays Sylvia, a beautiful restaurant manager whose cool, professional demeanor masks the sexually charged storm within. When a stranger from Mexico confronts her with her mysterious past, Sylvia is launched into a journey through space and time that inextricably connects her to these disparate characters, all of whom are grappling with their own romantic destinies.

MPAA rating: R (for sexuality, nudity and language).

Running time: 1:49.

Starring: Charlize Theron (Sylvia), Kim Basinger (Gina), John Corbett (John), Joaquim de Almeida (Nick).

Written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga; produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. A Magnolia Pictures release.

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