Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 73
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 48
This heavily symbolic, melodramatic multi-narrative drama lacks emotional resonance.
Average Rating: 4/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 12
This heavily symbolic, melodramatic multi-narrative drama lacks emotional resonance.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 7,358
Charlize Theron top-lines the romantic ensemble The Burning Plain, written and directed by Babel screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. 2929 Production's film tells the tale of a web of interconnecting love stories, with Theron playing Sylvia, a woman with a troubled past who tries to reconcile with her parents. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Sep 18, 2009 Wide
Jan 12, 2010
$58.7k
Magnolia Pictures
All Critics (76) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (48) | DVD (3)
The burning is mostly on the plain, not in this labyrinthine story.
Throw in enough symbolism to choke an English-lit major and you have a film challenge that too often feels like a chore.
If Arriaga had allowed us to spend more time with the key characters in this extended tragedy, or had spent some time punching up the plot, The Burning Plain might have had a chance.
Possibly the stories fit too neatly. If so, it's hardly a fatal flaw.
It's serious stuff, intended for serious movie people. The only problem is, serious movie people have already been there, done that.
The result is confusion, not catharsis.
Deep-seated emotional problems are examined in a complex movie that, as ever with Arriaga, refuses to fit into a straightforward narrative.
Knowing ... that it's a 20-year old story, one can only conclude the idea behind the film would have been best left unfilmed, an unfinished step toward greater things.
Babel director shows his hand too soon
When so many cinema releases are instantly forgettable, The Burning Plain clings to the memory...
A melancholy but also profoundly uplifting film by the talented Guillermo Arriaga. Storytelling is an artform and Arriaga is a master
I think Ariaga needs to find another structuring device: this is way too complex, and Arriaga is so busy time-shifting that it takes quite a while to figure out who the characters are, and the way their relationships come together.
It's a hard film to love, partly because of its air of deadly seriousness.
Even if the film is a little contrived, it's quite a haunting experience...
Once it all clicks into place and viewers are left to engage with the characters, the heavy misery and self-importance of the piece becomes overwhelming.
None of the characters breathe... They're knocked helplessly, lifelessly around in the service of the oh-so-serious story.
Not much star power bolstering the disc's bonus features, but overall it's a nice package for a rather small film.
A convoluted, cinematic jigsaw puzzle of Shakespearean proportions!
Charlize Theron and Kim Bassinger star in an intriguing drama where past and present are brought together to reveal how you can be redeemed through love
A dreary mess directed and written by Guillermo Arriaga. Since it is Arriaga's first directing assignment, he can only blame his screenwriter for this uninvolving melodrama.
All of these seemingly disparate stories are related, but Arriaga connects them more slowly than an alert viewer can on his or her own.
It wearily limps along with its joyless obvious tale of loss, guilt and redemption.
The Burning Plain, a romantic mystery about a woman on the edge who takes an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life. Written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel). It is a heart breaking, touching movie. It follows the formula of having a main story with various
September 18, 2010Super Reviewer
The only reason to watch this film is the remarkable performance by Jennifer Lawrence, who recently garnered a Golden Globe nomination for another film. She captures a perfect balance between the impetuousness of youth and the world-weary bitterness of a daughter forced to grow up too soon, and late in the film she
December 14, 2010
Super Reviewer
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