The Burning Plain

Guillermo Arriaga must enjoy pain – his characters live in a world of it. The director of 21 Grams and Amores Perros strikes again with another spectacularly chilling, emotional wasp’s nest of a film. The three separate stories of love, sin, and redemption woven together in The Burning Plain hash out nightmarish tragedies of the heart that are too extreme for reality, yet too close to home to feel contrived. Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger and the very talented young Jennifer Lawrence all give mesmerizing performances. EW