A painful secret separates a mother and daughter in The Burning Plain, the feature directorial debut by the screenwriter of Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. The story moves fluidly in time: In the present, Sylvia (Charlize Theron) seems to be leading a confident life as the manager of an expensive restaurant, but it’s a mask covering promiscuity, self-mutilation, and suicidal impulses. Many years earlier, a young girl named Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence, The Bill Engvall Show) tries to piece together what led her mother (Kim Basinger) into an extramarital affair...even as Mariana herself falls into a dangerous relationship with the son of her mother’s lover. These threads and more are interwoven into an increasingly potent knot. The Burning Plain has some obvious dialogue and a few off-key notes, but despite that is a striking first effort by Guillermo Arriaga. Theron has always been best in roles that draw on anger and pain, like her astonishing performance in Monster; she goes bland when called on to portray nobility and happiness, but give her inner demons and her remarkable beauty roils with hidden emotions. The rest of the supporting cast--including John Corbett and Robin Tunney in small roles--turn in strong work. Like a boa constrictor, the movie slowly coils around you, then squeezes. --Bret Fetzer