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The Burning Plain

The Burning Plain follows the story of Sylvia (Charlize Theron) you see the story of her difficult childhood and her as an adult.

Whilst growing up in a small town in America her father worked away a lot of the time and her mother was left to raise Sylvia and her brothers and sisters, with her father away her mother met someone else, and started to have an affair. With her mother (Kin Basinger) coming home late more frequently Sylvia got more suspicious especially after hearing a phone call telling someone that she missed them and loved them.

One day she follows her mother as she goes out, they end up at a caravan in the middle of nowhere and saw her kissing and cuddling another man. When her mum came back she asked where she was and she lied. Sylvia went back once again and saw her mother having sex with another man, she plans on frightening her mother, by disconnecting the gas supply from the canister, but it goes wrong and kills her mother and the man she was having an affair with.

Now she can’t live with herself and is filled with guilt, and she meets a young man one day and it is the son of the man her mother was having an affair with, they quickly become friends, and their relationship progresses further until they are sleeping together. When Sylvia’s father finds out he hits the roof and goes after Santiago as wants his daughter to have nothing to do with him, but Sylvia and Santiago run away, and Sylvia discloses to her boyfriend that she is pregnant.

Years later and Sylvia has moved away and is working in a successful restaurant, but isn’t happy sleeping with many men as possible and self harming herself, one day a Mexican man turns up and claims to have been sent by Santiago with the daughter she ran away from when her daughter was 2 days old. Now Sylvia must confront her past and face her daughter for the first time in many years, and now must go back and face Santiago who is injured and in hospital, but can she put her fears behind her and go back to where everything took place and become apart of her family again?

The Burning Plain is a good film with a great story however, can get a bit confusing in places, but still a good film and is worth a watch. It’s a serious film and you need to pay attention so a Friday night with friends over perhaps isn’t the best time to watch this, midweek when there is nothing on the television and have time to sit down and pay attention, I am sure you will enjoy it, especially Charlize Theron who is excellent again.

Director:  Guillermo Arriaga Main Cast:  Kim Basinger, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, J.D. Pardo, Danny Pino, José María Yazpik, Tessa Ia, Joaquim de Almeida Release Date:  August 2009
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