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Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, Joaquim de Almeida, John Corbett, Robin Tunney ... see more see more... , Brett Cullen , Danny Pino , Jose María Yazpik , Jennifer Lawrence , J.D. Pardo , Tessa Ia , Rachel Ticotin

Charlize Theron top-lines the romantic ensemble The Burning Plain, written and directed by Babel screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. 2929 Production's film tells the tale of a web of interconnecting love ... read more read more...stories, with Theron playing Sylvia, a woman with a troubled past who tries to reconcile with her parents. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

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57% liked it

7,532 ratings

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34% liked it

73 critics

R, 1 hr. 51 min.

Directed by: Guillermo Arriaga

Release Date: September 18, 2009

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DVD Release Date: January 12, 2010

Stats: 526 reviews

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The Burning Plain The Burning Plain CHARLIZE THERON CHARLIZE THERON The Burning Plain Charlize Theron Charlize Theron Kim Basinger, Joaquim de Almeida The Burning Plain Charlize Theron and John Corbett Kim Basinger official film still official film still The Burning Plain official film still official film still official film still official film still
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Flixster Reviews (526)

  • barrys
    January 5, 2011
    barrys
    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. Written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel). It is a heart breaking, touching movie. It follows the formula of h... read moreaving a main story with various sub-stories that in the end their paths are crossed. The rhythm is a little slow, it continuously changes from story to story making it hard to follow and a little boring at some moments. The cast is good. Charliza Theron, Kim Basinger John Corbett, Robin Tunney, Jose Maria Yazpik, everyone delivering very convincing performances although some of them are a little overacted aswell. In conclusion, If you've seen Babel or 21 Grams or Amores Perros, all of them written by Ariaga, then you know what to expect with The Burning Plain
  • hunterjt13
    December 14, 2010
    hunterjt13
    The only reason to watch this film is the remarkable performance by Jennifer Lawrence, who recently garnered a Golden Globe nomination for another film. She captures a perfect balance between the impetuousness of youth and the world-weary bitterness of a daughter forced to grow ... read moreup too soon, and late in the film she has an uninhibited crying scene that makes Viola Davis's part in Doubt look like it's as guarded as Russell Crowe.
    As far as the story is concerned, I think of Kurt Vonnegut's "rules" for writing. He effectively said, "Don't hide anything from the audience. Fuck suspense." He also said, "Flannery O'Connor violates all of these rules and still writes effective fiction." Hi ho. Writer/director Guillermo Arriaga would have done well to remember Vonnegut's "rules" because for much of the movie, we feel like the episodic scenes we're presented with are too disconnected in theme and substance to amount to anything interesting. It turns out that the stories are connected, but by the time we find this out, we've stopped caring.
    Overall, catch a rising star in Lawrence but to hell with the rest of the film.
  • fernandorafael
    October 31, 2010
    fernandorafael
    The first film by Guillermo Arriaga since his public breakup with professional partner Alejandro González Iñárritu, a collaboration that rendered such lauded projects as Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. Fire is a recurring theme that appears all through the plot of The Burning ... read morePlain. Like in other stories by Mexican-born writer Arriaga, the story follows a non-linear narrative.

    The strength of the film is found in its female cast: from Charlize Theron (who also executive-produced) and Kim Basinger to newcomers Tessa Ia and Jennifer Lawrence, the latter giving the best performance in the film as "Mariana". Lawrence is already gathering considerable Oscar buzz for her role in another drama, Winter's Bone. Also of note is the cinematography by Robert Elswit (There Will be Blood), which is particularly stunning when showing the chilly Portland shore.

    Guillermo Arriaga's one and only big mistake is his inability to really capture the essence of Mexico and its people which, frankly, is a mistake no Mexican filmmaker should make. Most of the Mexican (or Mexican-American) characters that appear in the film feel fake and artificial, even stereotypical, which isn't something unheard of in the world of cinema, but one would definitely expect more authenticity from a director that's portraying his own culture.
  • itsjustme2004
    October 14, 2010
    itsjustme2004
    This was really good. Charlize Theron is such a great actress. It took me a little while to figure out who was who in this movie, cuz they were jumping around quite a bit from present to past and back. It all came together quite nicely, though, and made for one heck of a story wi... read moreth a really nice ending.
  • sononothing
    September 18, 2010
    sononothing
    The Burning Plain opens with a trailer in the middle of the desert that is engulfed in flame. It just sits there, an inferno with a background that John Ford would be proud of. We come to find out that there were two people in the blaze: Gina (Kim Basinger) and Nick (Joaquim de A... read morelmeida). They were in the throws of passion when the propane tank exploded. The two were married. But not to each other. Out of the ashes Nick's son (J.D. Pardo) and Gina's daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) develop a romance after satisfying the curiosity of what each lover was like. As time passes we're introduced to Sophie (Charlize Theron), a restaurant manager whose life has turned into a series of meaningless sex acts and self mutilation.



    The funny thing about The Burning Plain is how it surprises you. You expect the main focus to be Basinger's relationship or Theron's loss of life, but at the central core of the film isn't a couple playing in the desert, put how their children help each other cope and eventually create what was destroyed in that trailer in the desert. That's the most interesting story. Through all the odds and animosity they hold it together.



    Even though it's not a perfect film, it does hold ones interest with a story that spans time and how it will catch up with you . It is more tragedy than romance, so don't go into this expecting Nicholas Sparks garbage. This is actually well written and acted with a sense for detail. A nice film.
  • dreamfaeries
    August 13, 2010
    dreamfaeries
    It took me a little bit to start piecing things together, but I did and it turned out to be an okay film. Wouldn't watch it again...
  • imrealgod
    May 10, 2010
    imrealgod
    Initially, it was a bit difficult to keep in track with the timeline, but after a while, I was able to get it. However, the movie is not worth the exercise!!!
  • 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 moredvent 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.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    September 16, 2009
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "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 morehe 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.

View All The Burning Plain Reviews

Critic Reviews

Deborah Young
October 16, 2009
Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter

The burning is mostly on the plain, not in this labyrinthine story.

Stephen Cole
October 16, 2009
Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail

Throw in enough symbolism to choke an English-lit major and you have a film challenge that too often feels like a chore. Full Review

Greg Quill
October 16, 2009
Greg Quill, Toronto Star

If Arriaga had allowed us to spend more time with the key characters in this extended tragedy, or had spent some time punching up the plot, The Burning Plain might have had a chance. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
October 2, 2009
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

Possibly the stories fit too neatly. If so, it's hardly a fatal flaw. Full Review

Tom Long
September 25, 2009
Tom Long, Detroit News

It's serious stuff, intended for serious movie people. The only problem is, serious movie people have already been there, done that. Full Review

Andrea Gronvall
September 25, 2009
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader

The result is confusion, not catharsis. Full Review

Colin Covert
September 25, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

The film is strikingly photographed and intensely acted, but the tone is overwrought melodrama. Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum
September 23, 2009
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

The scenery (prettily captured by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit) is littered with heavy symbolism (fire! rain! dead birds!); the performances are merely heavy. Full Review

A.O. Scott
September 18, 2009
A.O. Scott, New York Times

The elliptical structure of the narrative can't cover up its overheated, half-baked banality. Full Review

V.A. Musetto
September 18, 2009
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

That fractured structure worked well for Arriaga in his scripts for other directors. Here the characters aren't compelling enough to ask viewers to give their brains a workout to determine exactly wha... Full Review

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