In the aftermath of "The Hours" (2002), how women experience time, "The Burning Plain" (2008) directed by original writer and first-time director Guillermo Arriaga breaks under the weight of a director's responsibility. Giving the full independent package of a 20 Million U.S. Dollar production budget by producers Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes and professional cast going out from Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger over Joaquim de Almeida to an early motion picture participation of Jennifer Lawrence to create a story of a struggling woman's life through the ages from 18 to 50 years.Director Guillermo Arriaga, unable to create any suspense in any given scene of full frontal character conflicts; Actress Charlize Theron strives through the scenes uninspired to sedated, just dwelling from early hard knock life experiences, at no moment challenged by the director to break through with her character of Sylvia to step on uncharted territory of psychological terror after a girl's life changing mother-murdering incident.The well-written screen-story gets hardly translated to screen, lingering in too slow, if not to say insufficient shot pacing, wasting Robert Elswit's talents as Cinematographer. Director Guillermo Arriaga, seemingly uncomfortable in the director's chair, focuses on scenes on female self-mutilation and further draining from his characters' obsessions and sex addictions. The visuals, embedded in an U.S. Mexican Border Town and cold steel urban area cliché, misses surprises to release the spectator's running low interest in the female fates.Positively to mention is the on-screen chemistry of Kim Basinger & Joaquim de Almeida, who left on their own to create a heart-breaking, doomed to fail love story. Actress Jennifer Lawrence, in her Pre- "Winter Bone" (2010) days, seems to be overwhelmed, undirected by Guillermo Arriaga and close to lost by her on-screen actions in the character of Mariana of murdering mother and her lover in a trailer gas explosion.When the incident scene happens at running time marker 01h21mins00sec (PAL version), Director Guillerma Arriaga missed out to build an accelerating sequence with Editor Craig Wood to make an emotional impact for an arresting conclusion of woman's life wasted. Probably solution might have been to rearrange the editorial's structure entirely with taking the incident into the film's opening, which would have brought Jennifer Lawrence arguably a breakthrough performance under improved directions to carry an entire picture of her shoulders at an minor age; A fact that needed to mature another two years until her breakthrough at Sundance Film Festival 2010 with her leading role in "Winter's Bone".In conclusion, "The Burning Plain" had the ingredients to be a solid psychological drama. But through lack of thriller elements, with a cast put into breathtaking tension mode and accelerated action beats, lets the film vanish into mediocrity.

I finally got a chance to watch The Burning Plain this afternoon, and was absolutely captivated. Everything from the script, to the cinematography, and certainly the performances within the film itself really dazzled me.Gradually, the plot unfolds in front of us, as we watch several layers of a story. One layer involves two lovers who had an affair that ended up being killed in a trailer during a fire; we watch as the families deal with the repercussions of their deaths, and the reveal of their infidelity. Another layer involves the daughter of the woman who had the affair, and the son of the man involved with her, as they try to cope with their knowledge of the affair afterwards. The final layer involves a woman who goes from man to man seemingly, and doesn't seem to enjoy her life very much. All of these stories come together, but not before weaving around awhile. I thought I had an idea of what was going on, but there was one element I really had not anticipated, and when it happened (you'll know it when you see it yourself) I was absolutely shocked. A great and often moving (in many ways) story about a torrid love affair, and the effects it has on the lives of everybody near it. I give this film a 10 out of 10. I really don't see how people can't enjoy it, and if they don't, well that's their opinion! However, the look of this film right down to the performances in it make this one you do not want to miss. A good performance for Jennifer Lawrence should be noted especially seeing as how she is now rising and rising in her fame; she played a great role. Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron also display some fine acting, too.

What lies beneath our external persona and how we carry our past is an often an untapped, intriguing and even dangerous place to explore - and to return to.So, as we see Charlize Theron, extremely unglamorous as she rises from yet another bed at another man's house, in Portland, Oregon, an air of sadness drifts over us. Yet, as debut director Guillermo Arriaga grapples with his own script - and he has written some corkers - Babel & 21 Grams - we are strangely hooked.We want to see this woman and her life and how it connects with the rest of the film. As guarded restaurateur, Sylvia (Theron) we see that she's preoccupied and soon, she meets up with a figure from the past. From here - and inter-cut with the present, we visit her past life and how childhood events have shaped her. I won't reveal too much about this, except Kim Bassinger plays her mother, who has a torrid affair with Hispanic farmer Nick (Joaquim de Almeida - whom many will recognise but not be able to name!) near their New Mexico home.This is typical independent cinema; often slow, raw and intense and generally, as attractive as real life is - not very. Acting is always compelling and almost uncomfortably real but just because a film ticks all the 'pure' boxes, it doesn't necessarily make for a good film, which needs to be entertaining AND interesting. The latter, generally, yes, the former, not often and somehow the length and story don't make for a film that's totally satisfying. The good cinematography helps, though, as does the sparse and atmospheric music.Many will find the general pessimism of the film a little overbearing and this isn't Arriaga's best script; apparently the movie didn't do well at the box office and maybe the director will go on to produce a better film or write more great scripts for someone else to direct.

Great cast! Everyone gives a zillion percent and there is some exceptional choice casting too, though the actors weren't used to their potential and their roles even came across as superfluous; but okay, I was just happy to see those specific actors.Some of the characters are too much a caricature, especially the character played by Charlize Theron. She's such a cliché, I'm afraid to say. There's something 'prodigal' about Sylvia/Mariana, both as an adult and as a teenage girl.The story builds nicely though slow; sometimes it's too slow and drags for no apparent reason. The problem is that there are bits and pieces of the storyline that are also left dangling. They tie up nicely on the one hand but then, you are left feeling that they will continue to be tools for the future insight of the characters but then they're not. So those arcs were like dangling participles in the narrative, as far as I was concerned.This film though, as I mention in my tag line is a perfect example of how flashbacks (and dream sequences) are often a VERY tricky business in a film and if they're not properly shuffled into the sequences, it can make the film disjointed and cluttered. This film has those moments but because of all the rest of the things it has going for it (landscape, good actors and a partly interesting premise) it makes you want to give it a chance and wait out the fog to get to the cliffhanger.