Guillermo Arriaga’s feature directing debut, The Burning Plain, has a new trailer. The 21 Grams and Babel writer split with longtime collaborator Alejandro González Iñárritu after the two had fierce disagreements over how Babel should have been made, leading Arriaga to start directing his own scripts. The Burning Plain, like Arriaga’s previous material, deals with multiple characters as their lives unfold and intertwine, centering specifically on three women at various stages in their lives as they cope with love and its fickle consequences.

The film stars Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, and Jennifer Lawrence. It debuted last year at the Venice Film Festival to largely mixed reviews, with many praising the acting but calling it a muddled effort lacking an emotional punch. The trailer seems to suggest as much, offering a disorientingly fragmented look at the story with what appear to be compelling characters, but ones that we fail to make a connection with. I know that’s a lot to extrapolate from a 2 minute trailer, but that was the vibe this one gave me. Check it out yourself above, or in HD at Yahoo!, and tell me what you think.

The Burning Plain opens in limited release on September 18, 2009.

Tags: Charlize Theron, Guillera Arriaga, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Basinger, The Burning Plain