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.
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.