The Burning Plain

A woman is sitting next to the ocean. She is fingering a sharp rock in her hand. All of a sudden she lifts her dress and carves a long straight line into the skin of her inner thigh. There are scars there, she’s done this before. Her reasons are myriad, but they are unknown to us. In order to understand the source of her pain, and unravel her mystery, we must travel back in time to its source.

This woman is beautiful, she’s excellent at her job, and she has a good, loyal, faithful friend. But something is driving her to hurt herself. Whether it is the pain that she inflicts on her body, or the pain she causes herself by sleeping with unworthy men. This woman hates herself and we as an audience need to understand why.

As we follow two additional story-lines, this woman’s past is slowly revealed to us. We are intrigued, curious, and compelled, as we put the pieces together one by one. Charlize Theron, (Monster’s Ball) plays the mystery woman with a vulnerability beneath her icy exterior. Her finely crafted performance, drives us to seek answers. Eventually they are revealed to us. The Burning Plain is the first directorial effort of screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, (Babel, 21 Grams).

Rating: Second Run A slowly unraveling, mystery, of a woman’s self-hatred