Simply Perfect

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Similar to movies like Babel or 21 Grams, this movie is based around a tragic event, and the characters surrounding it. The connectedness among the characters is something that is revealed slowly, though I will say it becomes apparent enough about 30 minutes in how Charlize Theron and Jennifer Lawrence are connected, primarily through a third (Mexican) character. You see several Mexican men (and boys), but watch for the guy with the big nose, and you'll start to piece it together. It's not until about the half way point that you start to realize how the Mexican girl plays into the whole thing. I got the impression that the movie had a certain sad and depressing ending, but I felt like the tragedy/sadness was more of the climax than the ending. You see Charlize Theron's character behaving throughout the movie with a certain sense of self-loathing and thankfully the end of the movie shows the beginnings of change in her character for the better. There is in fact two tragedies in this movie, and it's not until about 3/4 of the way through that you start to understand why the second one happened. Which is related to the first one, the burning trailer. I feel that Kim Bassinger as a cheating mother and Jennifer Lawrence as the aware and yet bitter daughter, was a dynamic that both played very well. Faced with self-shame and loneliness, a mother of four finds romance in another man and as the story goes on, you start to see her carefulness slipping, as the daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) learns of the situation. She begins to express a certain coldness and yet self- inflicted pain/mutilation that is the product of learning to hate her own mother.In the end, we are presented with the moral that we always have a choice to live with shame or live with love. The film has a certain sensation of epicness, in the sense of showing the human extremes of love, tragedy, hope, reconciliation, hatred, shock, etc, but I'm glad it ends on somewhat of a semi- positive note.The only real gripe I have is the sudden ending that leaves the viewer on a certain emotional string. We are left with a certain feeling of hope, but the scene cuts out just as Charlize Theron's character decides to make a different choice (of not running away) - rather than showing what actually happens next because of that choice. The ending would have felt less ambiguous (though somewhat hopeful) and more uplifting. It could have lasted one more scene, with hugs and smiles and what not, and still kept the depth of humanness in the whole story, without being too cheezy.

This is a strange movie. If your a fan of the Babel or other work by Guillermo Arriaga, then you will be satisfied with this movie. If your a fan of Charlise Theron then you be satisfied with this movie. If your looking for a gripping drama about how a tragedy affects the lives of different people you will be satisfied. However, if you looking for a good intense drama, this movie will leave you unsatisfied unless you can get over the very disjointed beginning and follow the movie to the end. I think you have to be familiar with Arriaga's films to really like this movie. He weaves stories together without any thought of a time line and it can make a movie seem very strange. However, if you will follow this movie to the end, it is a good movie. The Acting especially by Theron is outstanding. Give this movie a chance and its enjoyable. Not a masterpiece, but enjoyable.

This is a quiet, leisurely film about the tragedies that unite and divide two families over three generations in the American Southwest. It's the sort of deeply serious drama where the audience is told more through the actors' expressions and tone than through any bit of dialog. That also means The Burning Plain is the sort of movie that bores many people to tears. I am usually one of those viewers left weary and fatigued but not this time. Partly that's due to some non-liner storytelling that avoids pretension and trying too hard to be clever. Mostly it's because Charlize Theron gets buck naked.Yes, I realize that's a fairly crude and crass reaction. It also happens to be true for me and, I would guess, it would also be true for other folks who normally can't stand this kind of tale. The beautiful Miss Theron is completely nude at the very beginning and then gets topless before the film is halfway over. The nudity being non-gratuitous, actually showing us something important about Theron's character each time, certainly elevates the experience. Regardless, if she hadn't taken it off, I probably would have spent most of this movie annoyed and waiting for it to end. By so immediately grabbing my attention and then doing it again, I was pulled into this very human conflict more effectively than a billion fancy words or a rainbow of histrionic performances every could. The whole point of telling a story is to engage the audience and it's not always necessary, wise or even appropriate to do that exclusively at the highest level.It also helps that none of the characters in The Burning Plain are annoying or aggressively foisted on the viewer. Mostly in silence and sometimes in action, they're allowed to unspool on the screen with each scene taking you further and further into who and what they are. But it's mostly Theron taking her clothes off.This motion picture jumps back and forth among three different time periods and three sets of characters. There's Gina (Kim Basinger), a desperately unhappy woman who slinks away from her husband and children to the arms of Nick (Joaquim De Almeida), a similarly adulterous husband and father who is consumed with unconditional passion for her. Things move ahead in time a bit to Gina's daughter Marianna (Jennifer Lawrence) and Nick's son Santiago (JD Pardo), who find their souls intertwined after violent death shatters both of their families. Many years after that, there's Sylvia (Charlize Theron), an emotionally wounded woman who self-medicates with joyless promiscuity and Maria (Tessa Ia), a young Mexican girl who sees her cropduster father crash in front of her eyes and is taken on a journey to find the mother she's never known.Now, if you pay any attention at all, you'll quickly figure out how all these people fit together, where their lives are going and how they'll get there. Fortunately, experiencing the voyage is more important that arriving at the destination. The Burning Plain isn't about watching a plot unfold. It's about recognizing other human beings in moments of pain, joy, selfishness, nobility and fear. You hope these people get a happy ending the way you want one for yourself.In addition to baring it all, and once again demonstrating the principle of Producer Self-Nudity, Theron is marvelous as a profoundly sad woman who deadens herself with sex and almost can't stand it when she must acknowledge her own feelings. Kim Basinger is equally wonderful as an equally sad woman who finds not anesthesia but liberation in her affair. Jennifer Lawrence and JD Pardo are also captivating as two teenagers whose unprocessed anger propels them forward when they don't have any idea what they're doing.The Burning Plain isn't for those who want something quick and loud and distracting. If you're looking to ruminate for a while, this isn't a bad object to focus on. And that's not a reference to Theron's bosom.

I saw this movie for the first time on TV last night: it was one of those movies that do not let you go to sleep with a light heart. It's about a deep, lacerating human drama, involving more generations, narrated through continuous going back and forward. Not difficult to follow, however, since there's a kind of subtle, subterranean emotional line, uniting all characters, places, vicissitudes, as to make the viewer almost naturally and instinctively able to get in touch with the story. And the director chose to pass such an emotional impact in a gentle and unobtrusive way, with a sense of unreal quietness, pervading the whole movie, although hiding a sense of anguish. Evident it is that in such movies great responsibility is given to the cast: in "The burning plain", the whole cast, especially the female interpreters, deliver very good and intense performances. Charlize Theron gets to convey a kind of suffocated pain and unbearable sense of guilt in a superb way. Kim Basinger offers touching and sincere acting, but also the younger female cast show credibility and intensity in their difficult roles.