The Burning Plain

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The Burning Plain

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The Burning Plain

Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, Joaquim de Almeida, Jose María Yazpik, Kim Basinger

From writer/director Guillermo Arriaga comes THE BURNING PLAIN, a romantic mystery about a woman on the edge who takes an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life. Oscar-winner Charli...( read more  read more... )ze Theron plays Sylvia, a beautiful restaurant manager whose cool, professional demeanor masks the sexually charged storm within. When a stranger from Mexico confronts her with her mysterious past, Sylvia is launched into a journey through space and time that inextricably connects her to these disparate characters, all of whom are grappling with their own romantic destinies.

In Mexico, a young motherless girl, Maria (Tessa Ia), lives happily with her father and his best friend until a tragic accident changes it all. In the New Mexico border town of Las Cruces, two teenagers, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Santiago (JD Pardo), find love in the aftermath of their parents’ sudden deaths. In an abandoned trailer, a housewife, Gina (Oscar-winner Kim Basinger), embarks on a passionate affair that will put Sylvia and the others on a collision course with the explosive power of forbidden love.

Id: 11046116

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The Burning Plain Recent Reviews
  • flickfever
    September 18, 2009
    flickfever
    In The Burning Plain, the intersecting lives of multiple characters come crashing into one story that is both gripping and incredibly layered. Until just recently, movies that skip back and forth between multiple stories were deemed to be avant garde and confusing. But with the a...( read more)dvent and popularity of films like Memento and Crash, this method of storytelling is no longer so polarizing.

    Still, the story may confuse some because it is multi-tiered and is told from different perspectives at varying times in the characters lives. But if you find yourself engrossed with the first story, everything else will fall into place and you'll find that you've been following the story without any problems.

    The story itself is a richly textured one. It concerns a woman named Sylvia (Theron) who is on the verge of a mid-life crisis because of a traumatic childhood event concerning her family--more specifically, her mother (Basinger.) When Sylvia is confronted with the product of her mistake in the form of a daughter, she must come to terms with her past and the errors of her ways.

    Essentially, the movie explores the delicate line on which people walk throughout their whole lives in order to avoid being hurt. There comes a point in everybody's life when one must choose to keep running from the things that cause us pain or confront them head-on and suffer the consequences and/or reap the benefits.

    The film slowly unravels itself unto its audience, ultimately leaving the viewer greatly satisfied at the way the character have chosen to play out their roles in the story. The acting by Theron and Basinger is stellar as the sullen pair of women that anchor what could have been a chaotic film. Their performances are the root of the film's extrapolating branches and all the fruits that those branches bear are a direct result from the seeds that they sow with every nuance and subtle revelation in their performances.

    Hopefully, the efforts of Theron, Basigner and director Guillermo Arriaga won't go unnoticed come awards season. The Burning Plain is definitely one of the best of the year so far and, although somewhat understated and slightly depressing, it is a brilliant little gem that deserves to be discovered and admired by many.
  • mrpopcorn
    September 16, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "My name is not Mariana!.."

    A drama with a two-tiered storyline concerning a mother (Basinger) and daughter (Theron) who try to form a bond after the young woman's difficult childhood.

    REVIEW

    T...( read more)he writer Guillermo Arriaga, much famed for his trilogy of films with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, namely Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, steps behind the camera and debuts his own directing skills with 'The Burning Plain' a multi-layered affair that at its core tries to explore how we deal with guilt. If you didn't like the style of the aforementioned films then chances are you won't get on with this either. The story is told in interweaving flashbacks and over different time periods and does require some work on the part of the viewer. But with plot pieces trickled out like a bread crumb trail right up to the end, a great but subtle score and some breathtaking scenery it grips you as you slowly piece it all together. Added to that there are the two brilliant central performances from Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, as the damaged mother and daughter and a supporting cast that in their various roles are also superb especially Jennifer Lawrence who rightly won an award at the Venice Film Festival. The cinematography is great and the colours are so warm you can almost feel the Mexican heat coming out of the screen. The direction while not quite as good as Inarritu proves that Arriaga was indeed paying attention and the overall feel is eerily similar. The only downside is that it does leave certain characters stories unfinished but that really is just a minor quibble in what is a very emotionally charged and challenging film.
  • gor41
    September 3, 2009
    gor41
    Arriaga's characteristic style comes unstuck as his tricksy timeline adds little and masks some illogical plot developments.
  • zillionaire
    August 25, 2009
    zillionaire
    Compelling
  • Nutterjr
    July 20, 2009
    Nutterjr
    Although I find Arriaga a genius wehn it comes to writting films (e.g. 21 grams, Babel, Amores perros) he was not quite convincing as a director. This film is a bit muffled and albeit some good acting from everyone, I never fully conected with the emotional undercurrents.
  • excapology
    November 15, 2009
    excapology
    very good. good rythm. solid performance. i liked it very much and i don't think it was slow.
  • EddieGunner
    November 11, 2009
    EddieGunner
    it's slow but good movie, with nice story
    and plus u can see naked Theron what else do u need lol
  • JaneDoeNili
    October 30, 2009
    JaneDoeNili
    I loved it, and i don't understand why critics hated it. It was a very good story, slow but realistic. Awesome acting.
  • Jameshy
    October 26, 2009
    Jameshy
    A pretty decent slow burning multi-threaded drama. It has one of those fragmented timelines that jumps around a bit but when you actually work out who's who and how their lives all cross over it's quite intresting. Solid performances by the cast. Nice cinematography.
  • nahmed414
    October 23, 2009
    nahmed414
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