Parents' Guide to

The Burning Plain

By Renee Longstreet, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Poignant story of infidelity, loss, remorse; not for kids.

Movie R 2009 107 minutes
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What's the Story?

In THE BURNING PLAIN, a terrible event -- an isolated house trailer explodes and burns on a deserted field -- is at the center of a story that takes viewers through the years and back again, moves repeatedly from Oregon to Mexico and New Mexico, and tells the tales of some of the people touched by the tragedy. In the trailer, a mother of four (Kim Basinger) and a father of two (Joachim de Almeida) -- not married to each other -- are killed while in the midst of their illicit (but loving) affair. The many people affected by their relationship and its violent demise include a self-destructive restaurant manager (Charlize Theron), her lovers and a mysterious man who's stalking her, a crop-dusting pilot and his little girl, and the lovers' teen children. How these people are related to the explosion -- and how their lives are inevitably locked together -- is revealed slowly and mysteriously.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

The Burning Plain is made with great care and integrity and showcases fine, earnest efforts from a talented cast. (J.D. Pardo is particularly memorable as the adulterous father's teen son.) But its languid pace and the basic grimness of the characters' lives make it heavy going some of the time.

The movie is the first directorial effort by Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. This movie, like those earlier films, tells its story in a nonlinear manner, moving backward and forward through the years and from place to place while focusing on a variety of characters. At first these shifts may seem random, often confusing. As the film's multiple characters and story lines converge, it's the audience's job, along with the filmmaker's, to put the pieces of the puzzle together and come to a satisfying conclusion.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the fact that guilt is a recurring theme of the movie. Which characters feel guilty? How do the characters reveal their guilt? Are any of the characters strong role models?

  • How many lives were affected by the behavior of two people who fell in love and had an affair? Can you think of other instances in which many people suffer because of the actions of a few? What can we do to be aware of this fact when we make important life choices?

  • The filmmaker uses a nonlinear storytelling method, with repeated shifts of time and place. What do you think the goal behind that decision is? What does this technique require of the viewer?

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