Minnie Driver plays a woman looking for diamonds lost by her ancestors out in the desert, when she stumbles upon two criminals (Spader and Brolin) who have miraculously stumbled upon the diamonds on accident, and who quickly take her captive. Driver has to figure out how to get the diamonds to herself and try to ditch her captors, while a mysterious old friend, Stuart Wilson, watches the events unfold from a distance and narrates Driver's past.Minnie Driver makes an adequate lead, but it's James Spader who makes this movie. He plays a real goon; a rat-like voice and the only one with a gun. He gets increasingly desperate to escape his purgatory in the middle of nowhere and make the diamonds his. His mentally slow but good-hearted partner in crime, Brolin, and the antics of Driver lead his character. A great performance that kept me hooked, despite reading the other reviews.Great cinematography to this movie. It's all shot in the desert, and the dry heat is beautifully captured. Ditto for the costumes. Spader and Brolin's bumbling conmen aren't used to the weather, and their faces are chapped and blistered in startlingly realistic fashion. The movie's biggest problem is Stuart Wilson's bizarre, almost random narration. His character isn't very well set up in the beginning and you spend most of the movie trying to figure out his relevance to the story. It's purpose is a way to wrap up the loose ends, but I would have liked the film more if it had just abandoned the explanation of the past and made instead a character study of this trio.Overall, I recommend it.

Since I don't recognize anyone in this film, I assume that it is a small time or low budget or some other small enterprise film with a major distributor. For such an unassuming movie, it has a lot of merits. The cinematography is really nice. The acting never falls behind the plot or the script which is a little threadbare. And the story and the characters have a rather original hard boiled reality to them.After renting movie after movie based on heavy promotion only to find myself scrambling for the fast forward, it was a pleasant change to just sit back and see a nicely told story.To see how the heavies do the same thing better see Dafoe and Sam Neil in "Victory"

"One dream doesn't make a whole life."What a gem (pardon my pun) if you enjoy watching actors and NOT all the CGI bells and whistles that can become such a bore when they are used to hide the lack of a STORY.SLOW BURN does have a good script and well-drawn characters. JAMES SPADER really pushes the envelope as "Marcus", a slimy escaped con. What a joy to see a great actor in an interesting role and not some "potboiler" like SUPERNOVA (what a waste of talented actors). MINNIE DRIVER as "Trina" was very believable in a role we're not accustomed to seeing her play. The biggest surprise was JOSH BROLIN as the shambling, but not so dim "Duster" a wonderful performance. The romantic tension between Trina and Duster is subtle and presented with just the right, light touch.The score complimented the action, not always an easy task especially for a story/character driven movie as opposed to some action flick.Overall, I was very pleased with this movie that is running on several of the cable movie channels right now.

A really fantastic film, especially considering its low budget. Usually with such independent films one is disappointed in the lack of closeups, or the stiffness of direction, but not at all in this case. What makes this film excellent is its understatement -- any lesser director & cast would have made this tale of self-destructive obsessions into a self-indulgent orgy of overacting and self-consciousness, but this film is utterly believable, and its characters, although they are at the dark edges of human behavior, are entirely sympathetic and real. The script is also excellent and relatively original while harkening back to such classic films as "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon".A high point is James Spader's heavy accent as "Marcus" -- usually you only see him playing half-asleep yuppies. This film proves he also has great technique. It's Minnie Driver, however, who is the hypnotic focal point of the film -- her passion radiates from the screen.