Synopsis
A trailer is burning in the middle of a plain. The bodies of two adulterous lovers are found. Scenes from both families, before and after the dramatic events, suggest an unusual connection between them. But what is their secret?
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Cast
- Charlize TheronSylvia / Mariana
- Kim BasingerGina
- Jennifer LawrenceYoung Mariana
- Joaquim de AlmeidaNick Martinez
- John CorbettJohn
- Robin TunneyLaura
- Fernanda RomeroSophie
- Brett CullenRobert
- Danny PinoSantiago Martinez
- José María YázpikCarlos Alarid
Recommendations
- 100
Los Angeles Times
Powerful, profound and beautifully rendered. - 90
Film Threat
In The Burning Plain, another directorial debut, sensationalism is on order, but it's buttressed by fear, suffering, and desire – the schizo-blend that makes Arriaga's scripts so unique. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
For a film that strives so hard to show the sheer messiness of real people's lives, Burning Plain does have an impossibly neat ending. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
Told chronologically, it might have accumulated considerable power. Told as a labyrinthine tangle of intercut timelines and locations, it is a frustrating exercise in self-indulgence by writer-director Guillermo Arriaga. - 63
Boston Globe
The best performance here comes from a Mexican child actress, Tessa Ia, as half of one of the fraught mother-daughter relationships. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
An ambitious, visually handsome production which fails to ignite. - 50
Variety
Many of the weaknesses and few of the strengths of Guillermo Arriaga as a scripter are evident in his directing debut, The Burning Plain. - 33
The A.V. Club
The characters in The Burning Plain are so narrowly defined by tragedy that they reveal no other facets of humanity.
