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Magnolia Pictures In New Mexico, a tragic affair between characters played by Kim Basinger and Joaquim de Almeida plays out in reverse in "The Burning Plain."

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 as 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 made those earlier films spark to life,

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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 in this (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 — and 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

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to her or is 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 with no emotional resonance.

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

'The Burning Plain'
b-
  • STARRING: Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, John Corbett, Joaquim de Almeida, Robin Tunney
  • DIRECTOR: Guillermo Arriaga
  • WHERE: At the Embarcadero in S.F.; the California in
    Berkeley and the
    Camera 3 in San Jose
  • RATING: R (for sexuality, nudity and language)
  • RUNNING TIME: 1 hour
    49 minutes
  • LANGUAGE: In English and in Spanish with English subtitles