Critics took notice of Mexican filmmakers when screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga released AMORES PERROS in 2000. Arriaga's work with director Alejandro González Iñárritu (AMORES PERROS, 21 GRAMS, BABEL) earned the writer an Academy Award nomination in 2007 and his collaboration with Tommy Lee Jones (THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA) won him the Best Screenplay Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Springboarding off  the success of these films, Arriaga recently made his directorial debut with THE BURNING PLAIN (more).
 
Like his prior work, the film features different converging storylines and a focus on the U.S./Mexico border. Starring acclaimed actress Charlize Theron, the film seems like the perfect package for critcs. However, unlike his other films, this one is not beloved.
 
The film has a current rating of 29% on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers saying that the film is "overly symbolic" and "melodramatic" (more). They also cite Arriaga's multiple, interweaving plots to be a major weakness of the film and its ultimate undoing. Is the Arriaga way of storytelling beginning to adhere to a type of formula? Is this formula waring thin on viewers?
 
In his review, Roger Ebert goes as far to say if the film were 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" (more).
 
Arriaga doesn't find his storytelling techniques to be formulaic. In a recent interview with Latino Review, the filmmaker states, "Until now I've been trying to find a different structure for a story. For example, the structure of AMORES PERROS is very different from the structure of THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA or this one" (more).
 
If you've caught the film in its limited release, or its run on Direct TV, leave your thoughts below. Is THE BURNING PLAIN a major disappointment for Arriaga's fans? Or is it another resounding success that critics just don't get?
 
If you're unfamiliar with the writer's work check out BABEL and THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA here on Film Fresh and let us know if Arriaga's multiple, converging storylines enthrall you, or just irritate you.