The Burning Plain

Several stories set on both sides of the border between the United States and Mexico, built in different time frames: a restaurant manager in Oregon, a fire in a trailer near the border, and the wound that opens in a teenage girl's family. The connections fall into place towards the end. The film is not interested in the secret. It is interested in guilt skipping a generation: a mother's choice determines her daughter's life, and nobody explains anything to anybody. The form rests on fragmented chronology. Guillermo Arriaga introduced that structure in his screenplays for Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel; here he directs for the first time and tries the same structure alone, after parting ways with Alejandro González Iñárritu. The result is arguable: the construction is the same, but the emotional link between scenes is weaker and the film holds on to its mystery longer than it should. Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger lead. Jennifer Lawrence, eighteen at the time, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the 2008 Venice Film Festival for her performance as Mariana, her first major international prize. Who it is for: viewers who like split-time narratives and Arriaga's writing, and anyone who wants to see Lawrence break through. Who it is not for: anyone after a linear story. The film withholds information on purpose, and the wait is not worth it for every viewer.