The Burning Plain 2008

     This film follows several different people separated by time and space.  Sylvia (Charlize Theron) is a woman in Oregon who needs to take an emotional odyssey to rid herself of her past.  Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Santiago (JD Pardo) are two teenagers.  They are trying to piece together the shattered lives of their parents in a New Mexico border town.  

      Maria is a little girl and she goes on a border-crossing trip.  She wants to help her parents find redemption, forgiveness and love.  Maria lives with her father and her mother left her when she was an infant.  Gina and Nick are a couple.  They need to deal with an intense and clandestine affair.  The biggest problem with them being together is that they are both married to other people.  

       JD Pardo and Danny Pino play the same character at different ages.  Ten years later in 2018, they stared opposite each other in the FX series Mayans M.C. (2018).  It is important to pay attention to the three women characters in this film.  Kim Bassinger is the mother Gina with a husband and children in the opening scenes.  Charlize Theron is acting as the oldest daughter as an adult and her name is Sylvia.  She cares nothing about herself because she thinks she is a terrible person!!  Jennifer Lawrence is the oldest daughter Marianna, she hates her mother, spies on her and Santiago is her boyfriend.  Maria is a young girl that was abandoned as a baby and she has lived with her father.  He was cropdusting and has an accident with the plane.  Sylvia doesn’t know if she can meet with her daughter and father of their daughter since she feels terrible about never being in their lives??  5* (I really liked this movie)

     

107 min, Crime directed and written by Guillermo Arriaga with Charlize Theron, John Corbett, Jose Maria Yazpik, Robin Tunney, Gray Eubank, Fernanda Romero, Kacie Thomas, Martin Papazian, Sean McGrath, JD Pardo, Diego J. Torres, Jose Gallardo Jr., Rachel Ticotin, Brett Cullen.

Note:  Imdb 6.8* out of 10* with 20 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 38% with 80 reviews 56% with 5000+ audience scores, Metacritic 45 out of 100 with 18 critic reviews 7.4 out of 10 with 49 user scores, Roger Ebert 2 1/2*, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5* with 5 reviews, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Andrew Pulver,  

Special Note:  In a 2008 interview, Charlize Theron said taking her clothes off in front of cameras in this and any other film is is as easy as drinking for her.  "I don't really think about it much.  I read the scene and if it makes sense I do it.  I treat it the same way as I would any other scene.  Whether it's a nude moment or sitting at a bar drinking, it's all choices.  I don't think about it as nudity.”  Writer and director Guillermo Arriaga stated that the 4 elements - earth, fire, wind and water - are intentionally present during the entire film.  The title can be translated to Spanish as "El Llano en Llamas", it is the title of Juan Rulfo’s short story collection and he is one of Mexico's most famous writers.