The Burning Plain 2008

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: In The Burning Plain we follow three-or maybe four-different stories that ultimately converge in ways that are both utterly predictable and completely preposterous. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The elliptical structure of the narrative can't cover up its overheated, half-baked banality. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Time Out: For all the pretenses of roiling or suffocated desires, the cast appears to have been ordered to deaden all sensation (except for Basinger, who frets away in an underwritten part). Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: The emotional elements in all the plot threads are tremendously earnest, but Arriaga's manipulation of time and his abrupt shifts in focus ultimately detract from the knotty narrative puzzle. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Arriaga's achronological, everything-is-connected screenplays lost their originality and surprise, and started to become more like shtick. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: It's a perfectly adequate way to squander two hours, though I dare say Terminator Salvation will better expand the mind. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The result is confusion, not catharsis. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Possibly the stories fit too neatly. If so, it's hardly a fatal flaw. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's serious stuff, intended for serious movie people. The only problem is, serious movie people have already been there, done that. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The scenery (prettily captured by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit) is littered with heavy symbolism (fire! rain! dead birds!); the performances are merely heavy. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: That fractured structure worked well for Arriaga in his scripts for other directors. Here the characters aren't compelling enough to ask viewers to give their brains a workout to determine exactly what's going on. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A classic melodrama about thwarted desire, failed relationships, and unrealized dreams, Plain delivers solid turns from a stellar cast. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Told chronologically, it might have accumulated considerable power. Told as a labyrinthine tangle of intercut timelines and locations, it is a frustrating exercise in self-indulgence by writer-director Guillermo Arriaga. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film is strikingly photographed and intensely acted, but the tone is overwrought melodrama. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Initially, the puzzle structure and a pair of Oscar-winning actresses distract us from the dark vacuum at the center of this enterprise, but when it implodes, it doesn't reverberate. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Throw in enough symbolism to choke an English-lit major and you have a film challenge that too often feels like a chore. Read more

Greg Quill, Toronto Star: 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. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Despite an OK-to-good cast led by Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, plus a handsome tech package, this remains an elaborate writing exercise with few emotional hooks. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: The Burning Plain marks Arriaga's behind-the-camera debut, and his obviousness is staggering. Read more