The Burning Plain (*½)

Directed by: Guillermo Arriaga
Starring: Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, Joaquim De Almeida, John Corbett, Brett Cullen, Jose Maria Yazpik
Seen: June 13th 2009

*½ Out of ****

The Burning Plain starts with an open plain and in the middle of this the centre of the story, a burning trailer. Soon enough you learn that two people died in this fire, fused together in the explosion that started the fire. At the funeral of the Mexican man who died in the fire, Nick (De Almeida), a white man, Robert (Cullen), accuses the family openly and with no little amount of racism thrown in. He claims that their father caused their family’s destruction, he took their mother, Gina (Basinger), away from them, as Gina and Nick were engaged in an affair.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly different universe, Sylvia (Theron) is headed in a very destructive direction with her life. She sleeps with almost any man who will have her, and when one of them, John (Corbett), asks for more she is very dismissive and argumentative. A Mexican man, Carlos (Yazpik) is always in the background, keeping a close eye on Sylvia, but not approaching her at first. When he does, she handles him like most men, she offers herself to him, and he denies her.

A favourite stand-up comedian of mine, Eddie Izzard, once did a great skit about the difference between American and British films. American films, he said, is all bombastic and loud. British films on the other hand, are much more quiet and pensive and awkward whenever characters are pitted against each other. The Burning Plain is an American film playing at being British according to this line of thinking. During the first half of the film the viewer is desperately trying to find any sort of significance in the events transpiring, as well as trying to find a link between the two different stories on display – the one with Charlize Theron and the one with Kim Basinger.

If it had been told in a linear way, things might have made more sense, but then it would have been boring as hell, so the creators of the film decided to present things in a way that would keep people guessing right through. The film is about a lot of fornicating people, and their demise and/or progression, but the viewer never truly gets a chance to get to care about any character, since every single character in this film is hung up on something or other that motivates them to act in very strange ways.

The Burning Plain is a perfect example of what is wrong with art-house cinema in South Africa. Only a few short years ago art-house cinema meant great European films that have a limited target market. Today it seems that the art-house circuit gets to screen those films that will never really make it on the commercial circuit, and that tag can definitely be applied to The Burning Plain. In a few months no-one will remember it, and that is not even such a bad thing...