The Burning Plain
The Burning Plain-nf When a screen writer and first time director (Guillermo Arriaga) puts together a complicated plot with four seemingly unrelated stories, taking place in different locations, using two great actresses (Charlize Theron and Kim Bassinger) and an excellent supporting cast, you would hope that when they all come together at the end of the film, there would be an interesting, insightful ending that would make it all worthwhile. In our opinion, despite hitting his mark with a few good psychological themes, the movie fizzed out and in the end did not make the grade. Theron plays a depressed sex obsessed restaurant manager who while trying to forget her past is acting out the trauma of her teenage years (and no she wasn’t abused). Bassinger is an equally depressed mother of a bunch of kids who while trying to find sexual fulfillment after having some bad misfortune, ends up having even more tragedy. Feranda Romero and JD Pardo play teenagers each of whom is trying to deal with the affair and ultimately the horrible death of their mother and father. They themselves have created problems which go beyond the storyline of this movie. The movie is mostly set in the southwest U.S and Mexico as well as having a beautiful scene on a rocky ocean coastal cliff. In the end, the realistic depiction of the scenery and of human emotions, doesn’t make up for the shortcomings of the script. (2008)