The Burning Plain

Acclaimed Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Babel, 21 Grams) sits in the director's chair for this erotic and haunting mystery about a tormented woman who must acknowledge the past in order to find redemption. Sylvia (Charlize Theron) manages a chic seaside restaurant near Portland, OR, with cool composure; but in private she leads a turbulent, promiscuous sex life, engages in casual self-mutilation, and contemplates suicide. When an enigmatic Mexican stranger confronts her about guilty secrets, Sylvia finds herself linked with disparate yet interconnected characters, all of whom are grappling with their own romantic destinies. In Las Cruces, NM, a frustrated housewife, Gina (Kim Basinger), embarks on a doomed, adulterous affair with a Mexican farmer, Nick (Joaquim de Almeida), in an abandoned trailer that explodes in flames in the remote desert; and two rebellious teenagers, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Santiago (J.D. Pardo), discover forbidden love in the aftermath of the trauma of their respective parents' sudden deaths. In Mexico, 12-year-old Maria (Tessa Ia) lives happily with her devoted crop-duster father (Danny Pino) and his best friend (José María Yazpik), until a near-fatal airplane crash changes everyone's lives. Filled with indelible imagery and propelled by solid performances from Theron and Basinger, The Burning Plain is a compelling, if melodramatic, tale of emotional turmoil, told in jumbled fragments that make sense only when the nonlinear parts of the puzzle finally fit together. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” documentary (43 min.), “The Music of The Burning Plain” (16 min.), “HDnet: A Look at The Burning Plain” (5 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a powerful if somewhat uneven drama.] (S. Granger)