The Burning Plain

• BURNING PLAIN, THE (DVD MOVIE)

Frequently given short shrift as a blue movie (which it is) and as mindless (which it isn't), director Adrian Lyne's follow-up to Flashdance (insert own joke here) is a thoughtful, smutty film about a bad sexual relationship. It follows the two-month affair between Elizabeth, an art-gallery dealer, and John, a Wall Street exec. The relationship spirals downward into raunchier sex (filmed, by the way, quite nicely) but principally is about two adults doing adult things but not acting anything like real adults. Attempts at actual human connection, about the longing to be "good," are present here and make this an above-average erotic film. Rourke is just honing his scumbag, bad-boy persona; but it doesn't overwhelm. Lots and lots of Kim Basinger. --Keith Simanton Academy Award® winners Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger star in this romantic mystery ab! out hope, redemption and second chances. Sylvia (Theron) is a woman on the edge whose cool, professional demeanor masks a deeply troubled, sexually charged storm within. When a stranger from Mexico confronts her with her mysterious past, she is launched into an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life. Gina (Basinger) is a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage who finds solace and passion in an illicit affair. Though separated by time and great distances, these women find their lives linked by the forces of love and fate.A painful secret separates a mother and daughter in The Burning Plain, the feature directorial debut by the screenwriter of Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. The story moves fluidly in time: In the present, Sylvia (Charlize Theron) seems to be leading a confident life as the manager of an expensive restaurant, but it’s a mask covering promiscuity, self-mutilation, and suicidal impulses. Many years earlier,! a young girl named Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence, The Bill En! gvall Sh ow) tries to piece together what led her mother (Kim Basinger) into an extramarital affair...even as Mariana herself falls into a dangerous relationship with the son of her mother’s lover. These threads and more are interwoven into an increasingly potent knot. The Burning Plain has some obvious dialogue and a few off-key notes, but despite that is a striking first effort by Guillermo Arriaga. Theron has always been best in roles that draw on anger and pain, like her astonishing performance in Monster; she goes bland when called on to portray nobility and happiness, but give her inner demons and her remarkable beauty roils with hidden emotions. The rest of the supporting cast--including John Corbett and Robin Tunney in small roles--turn in strong work. Like a boa constrictor, the movie slowly coils around you, then squeezes. --Bret Fetzer

Read more »