'The Burning Plain' is powerful

THE BURNING PLAIN

3 stars

Rated R

Academy Award-winning actresses Charlize Theron (“Monster” and “North Country”) and Kim Basinger (“L.A. Confidential”) headline this mysterious melodrama that intricately weaves four story strands of smoldering passion and steamy love affairs, but never appear on screen together.

This marks the  directorial debut of Guillermo Arriaga, who also wrote the screenplay. He is no stranger to multiple narratives with a film pedigree that includes “21 Grams,” “Babel,” “Amores Perros” and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.”

Mother-daughter relationships are at the core of the fragmented approach that spans time and distance. Four strong women representing three generations are at the forefront of morality tales brimming with symbolic clues.

Arriaga simultaneously juggles each separate scenario and takes viewers on a powerful and beautifully rendered emotional journey. He wisely allocates just the right amount of time and information to hold your interest.

The movie’s title stems from an opening shot of the fiery explosion of a trailer home in the New Mexico desert. The how and why of this terrible tragedy is the catalyst for the various plotlines.

A brooding and troubled restaurant manager, Sylvia (Theron), is having an adulterous affair with one of her married cooks (John Corbett from “Sex and the City” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) in Portland, Ore. Meanwhile, in a Mexican border town, a young girl, Maria (Tessa Ia), accompanies her crop-dusting father and his best friend Carlos to a neighboring ranch. A crash landing sends her dad to the hospital. Maria and Carlos embark on a search for her missing biological mother who abandoned her father a few days after she was born. Gina (Basinger) is a wife and mother struggling to overcome the devastating consequences of breast cancer. Her husband no longer looks at her the same way sexually. She enters into a steamy secretive tryst with a Hispanic married man who shows her a tenderness she desperately desires. Two teenagers, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Sebastian (J.D. Pardo), experience forbidden love in the aftermath of the sudden death of her mother and his father.

Theron continues her string of terrific and daring thespian performances. She lays bare her body and soul in this unforgettable heartbreaking turn. Basinger is great in a key supporting role. This is a launching pad for Lawrence, whose star should rise to future celebrity status. Ia shows a lot of poise embodying a crucial piece of this tangled web of frustration, forgiveness and redemption.

Other strengths of the movie include: the splendid cinematography by Academy Award winners Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood” and “Good Night, and Good Luck”) and John Toll (“Braveheart” and “Legends of the Fall”), who contrast the desert landscape with the seaside Oregon coast, utilizing gold versus blue hues; an admirable editing job of seamless transitions by Craig Wood (“Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy) and the haunting musical score composed by Hans Zimmer (“The Dark Knight’ and “Gladiator”) and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

Robin Tunney of “The Mentalist” is a familiar face in the supporting cast playing a close friend and confidant of Sylvia.

This movie challenges you to uncover the past and put the pieces of the soap opera jigsaw puzzle back together. It brings to mind “Random Hearts” (1999) starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas, who discover after a commercial airliner crash that their respective spouses were having an affair.

Certain portions of the dialogue are in Spanish with English subtitles. Now showing exclusively for a limited engagement at the Leawood in Overland Park.

MORE THAN A GAME

3 stars

Rated PG

This inspirational documentary chronicling the early roots of NBA superstar LeBron James in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, shows the importance of placing the team over the individual.

This is a must-see for basketball fans and all high school students involved in athletic programs.

Director and co-screenwriter Kristopher Belman takes the viewer back in time combining one-on-one interviews with the father-who-turned-coach and the players making up the “Fab 5” at Saint Vincent-St. Mary High School, extensive rare footage of actual games dating back to a 14-and-under AAU team, never-before-seen home videos and personal family photographs.

The movie takes you into the locker room for team prayers and the stirring pre-game and halftime pep talks. You get to know James and each one of his closest friends on the team as the movie devotes time to off-the-court family backgrounds.

James, who is an executive producer, talks about being raised by his mother, Gloria, in the projects. He recalls a scary upbringing surrounded by violence, drug abuse and police sirens. He never knew his biological father and found security on the basketball court.

He takes you into his old bedroom and recalls the posters of Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant that adorned the walls. There is a priceless photo of him holding a basketball at age 2.

Early video of his rare talent dates back to 1997. The amazing game action highlights are punctuated by revered basketball guru Dick Vitale’s comment “Are you serious?”

James gained national recognition when he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in his junior year with a headline that read “The Chosen One.” ESPN and the Internet brought him instant celebrity status. This placed a bull’s-eye on his team as it played a national schedule competing with powerhouse programs in Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.

This group of Akron neighborhood kids may go down as the greatest team in high school basketball history. They were forced to play one game without James when he was temporarily ruled ineligible after accepting two jerseys from a sporting goods store.

A lot of the focus is on Coach Dru Joyce II, who helped these youngsters (including his own son) become men. He stressed team chemistry, character building and faith in God.

This coming-of-age realization of a dream almost seems too good to be true. No make-believe Hollywood script could match this once-in-a-lifetime, all-American story.

Now showing exclusively for a limited engagement at the Tivoli in Westport.

AMELIA

2 stars

Rated PG

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (“Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby”) stars in this biopic about the girl from the Kansas prairie who became a world-famous aviatrix.

Despite a striking resemblance, Swank spends most of her time sitting in the cockpit with no expression or striking poses for the camera. Rather than capitalizing on a daring adventure into the wild blue yonder and doing justice to the memory of a legendary feminist, the plain vanilla story leaves you empty. You come out learning nothing more about Amelia Earhart than she died too young. She was just shy of her 40th birthday when her plane dropped off the radar while attempting to fly around the world in 1937.

The movie is weighted down by a weak and bland script, wooden acting and a sluggish pace. Boredom sets in at the 90-minute mark as a superficial approach makes all the characters seem one-dimensional.

There is no chemistry between Swank and her handsome leading men, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor. Gere plays charming publisher George Putnam. He marries Earhart and the age difference is very noticeable. He is jealous and doesn’t trust his wife when she is with Gene Vidal (McGregor), an aviation pioneer.

A short-circuited romantic triangle is soft-pedaled due to the constraints of the PG rating. Earhart shares a few passionate kisses in a hotel elevator with Vidal. Subsequently, Putnam finds and reads aloud a love poem written by Earhart to Vidal.

The movie’s strengths are an attention-grabbing orchestral score by composer Gabriel Yared (“The English Patient”), appealing costumes and production designs that re-create the 1920s and ’30s and brilliant cinematography that works best in the aerial scenes over mountains, seas and deserts.

A night flight with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Cherry Jones) in the co-pilot’s seat is the highlight moment.

Swank spouts a lot of meaningless platitudes in voice-over narrations running throughout the film. Director Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding,” “The Namesake” and “Vanity Fair”) attempts to offer authenticity by sprinkling in black-and-white archival newsreel footage and newspaper headlines.

The movie could have gotten more mileage out of how precarious and extremely dangerous it was to fly a plane. Earhart was a risk-taking daredevil whose preparations appear to have put safety on the back burner.

Rather than endure this misfire better suited for commercial television about the freckle-faced “Lady Lindy,” you should rent instead two exceptional films about the same era, “Cinderella Man” and “Seabiscuit.”

Top 5 Flick Picks

1. The Boys Are Back

2. Capitalism: A Love Story

3. The Burning Plain

4. Law Abiding Citizen

5. More Than A Game

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