Movie review and filmmaker/actor interviews: The Burning Plain

by John P. Meyer

The Burning Plain represents the feature film directing debut of Guillermo Arriaga, whose screenplays for Babel and 21 Grams have already endeared him to serious lovers of edgy, challenging dramatic cinema.

Much like Babel, the story told in The Burning Plain is a complex (dare we say convoluted?) one: It centers on three women -- involved in three separate story lines -- who are connected to each other in unexpected ways.

Sylvia (played by Charlize Theron, who also gets a producing credit) is a restaurant owner in the Pacific Northwest. She's clearly unhappy, and attempts to alleviate her unhappiness by engaging in loveless one-night sexual encounters. When that approach fails, she cuts herself. She appears to be trying anything to overcome a deep-seated emotional numbness.

Gina (Kim Basinger, in a touching and emotional performance) is a housewife living in New Mexico. She feels alienated from her husband and teenage daughter, and has begun spending her lunch hours with a man she met while shopping for groceries. Nick (Joaquim de Almeida) is warm, loving, and accepting -- attitudes Gina finds lacking of late in her husband. She and Nick cavort in extra-connubial bliss in a house trailer on a disused desert road.

Gina's daughter, Marianna (Jennifer Lawrence) is going through a difficult time as we pick up her story. When she begins spending time with Santiago (J.D. Pardo), her family are beyond disapproving -- they are downright condemning. Without giving too much away, I will say that their reactions are understandable.

We as moviegoers are mystified at first as to why Arriaga's story hops back and forth between these seemingly unrelated story lines. Things gets even stranger when a -- well -- stranger shows up in Portland and begins shadowing Sylvia. And then yet another sequence is introduced involving a crop duster pilot and his young daughter. What the ... ?

Part of the joy of experiencing the movie is the deciphering of the intricate web of a plot laid out by Arriaga. Surprisingly (as you'll discover in our audio interview, recorded earlier this year), Arriaga does not write his scripts in linear fashion and then chop them up like a jigsaw for final presentation. According to him, they develop organically in the same storytelling order that we see them onscreen. Which, in the case of a film like this one, is really quite incredible, and argues strongly for the behind-the-scenes presence of an omniscient muse. (Alternative explanation: The writer's subconscious often works in mysterious ways. Ask any writer.)

When we get to the "big reveal," it's a satisfying and cathartic and incredibly sad one.

Great movie -- great acting -- beautiful cinematography (particularly on the New Mexico sets).

**********

Participants in the interview in addition to yours truly are Alice Reese and Frank Swietek. Here are highlights of our discussion:

PART 1:

* Arriaga talks about how he came up with the story idea (a remote trailer, a fire, a crop duster ...).

* He does not write his stories in a linear fashion; the stories take on a life of their own.

* "You have to discover the story."

* Re. not having the ending already figured out for "the pitch": "I have the excuse that I'm Mexican and I don't know how to do it."

* How Joaquim de Almeida was cast in the role of Nick -- and how he and Kim Basinger prepared for their intimate scenes together.

* de Almeida: "Some ... directors are so preoccupied with the way things look, they forget the actor is there."

PART 2:

* Arriaga's experience as a first-time feature film director: "It was so great."

* The difference between writing and directing.

* "I've been on sets where it was a nightmare ... the director was so neurotic ... he was angry all the time."

* "Every day we finished, I tried to go to everyone and say 'thank you.' Many times I hear, 'this is the first time a director talked to me.'"

* "There was a very beautiful moment ..." - near the end of the film.

* Location shooting on a 40-day shooting schedule

* "The landscape creates the character." - de Almeida

* "Fifty percent of lovers meet in the supermarket. And you know where is the other? In the kids' school." - Arriaga

* The role of sorghum in the film's color palette, and in determining the dates for shooting.

* The explosion scene and how it was engineered for filming purposes.

PART 3:

* Casting for the roles of the teenage lovers (Jennifer Lawrence and J.D. Pardo).

* "The gods of casting have descended on this place."

* Talent, persona, taste -- three attributes used in casting.

* Arriaga reflecting on his reflecting scenes at the end of the film.

* "I love birds. It has to do with the wind." - Arriaga

* Quail and doves were all over (in New Mexico).

* It rains a lot in Oregon, says Arriaga. "There was a moment like: 'please, someone stop this.'"

* "No more movies in Oregon." - de Almeida

* "I love the desert." - Arriaga

* "I have two of the best DPs (directors of photography) in the history of cinema" - re. Robert Elswit and John Toll.

* de Almeida is doing a pilot for a series where he plays another non-bad-guy role (as a director of a hospital).

* "You play bad guys, that's what happens. You play them well, they think of you." - de Almeida