'The Burning Plain' — not time travel, exactly...

This excellent 2009 film gathers power with its revelations as it moves forward and backward in time.

Directed by Guillermo Arriaga (screenwriter for "21 Grams," "Amores Perros," and "Babel"), it features powerful performances from Jennifer Lawrence (before her Academy Award nomination-winning performance in "Winter's Bone"), Kim Basinger, and Charlize Theron, who is superb as a woman tormented by a horrible secret in her past, attempting without success to free herself from its hold on her.

I'd never even heard of this movie until after I watched "Winter's Bone" and saw it among movies recommended for those who liked that film.

I'm thinking it went straight to video, like so many wonderful movies which for one reason or another never make it into theaters or streaming.

Whenever I happen on a film in this fashion — or a book, for that matter — I wonder what the denominator is, i.e., how many hundreds or thousands of other superb works lie buried in obscurity.

To tell you more about this film than I have would potentially give away a mystery that's better seen than read about.