Rain (2001)

You won't be disappointed!

Fresh and Exciting

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I am a real sucker when it comes to movies that deal with subjects such as coming-of-age, first loves, families dividing, and independence in the younger generation. So it was no surprise to me that I found myself wrapped in the story of "Rain," a 2001 import from New Zealand about a 13-year-old girl watching her family slowly separate with the coming of a photographer, who takes a shine to her emotion-drained mother. As her mother and the photographer begin an extramarital affair, young Janey also struggles to teach her younger brother in the ways of the world, and combat the fact that she has an attraction toward this man herself."Rain" is played with a straight face, but this is to its advantage. It is a nice little film about many subjects; some of which we can relate to, others we hope never to. The plot does not thicken or compound itself with complications and big, astronomical twists. For most of its running time, it's sort of mundane. It almost seems like a Yasujiro Ozu film with a constantly moving camera. It presents life as it is without becoming melodramatic or hyperbolic and I think this is the reason why a lot of us can understand the position of Janey, who is very well-played by Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, and get involved in a story that is edited with gentle pacing.Some of the directing is a little hampered (no surprise, since it was Christine Jeffs's debut) but is overcome by deliberately rich symbolism. There are symbols and graphic representations found all throughout this movie and a sharp-eyed person will be very appreciative toward them. Example: daughter wants to confront her mother about a touchy issue with a little hostility. Her brother is off to the side, blowing bubbles through his straw into his drink to simulate boiling water: a parallel to the brewing animosity between the two characters.The movie is also rich with its details about the coming-of-age part of a person's life and this is what, I think, really drew me in. Janey is on-screen almost all of the time and we see her go through the rough parts of growing up. She experiences her first kiss, her first crush on an adult, her strives for independence from her parents brews, her desire to both instruct her younger brother and to get away from him, to stand on her own two feet, etc. We've all been there before. We don't get that many (compelling) coming-of-age stories these days and so a movie like "Rain" is worthy of appreciation.Performances are very good. Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, most of the time, stays solid in her characters and expresses her emotions (many of them withheld) wonderfully. She's a very good actress. As her emotionally-drained, seemingly lifeless mother, Sarah Peirce is very good, representing her inner feelings remarkably well while keeping a straight, seemingly exanimate face. The same can be said of Alistair Browning as the father. There's great energy in the performance by Aaron Murphy as the young, highly adventurous and free-spirited brother and a solid performance from Marton Csokas, whom "Lord of the Rings" fans are sure to recognize. There's also a very good supporting performance from David Taylor as the boy down the beach with a crush on Janey. His part, though very small, also contributes to this very sweet little painting of a movie.Warning: parents considering showing this movie to children might want to take into mind a brief, erotic prelude scene to lovemaking, and some brief flashes of male genitalia during a beach scene.

Visually and acting wise masterly, the coming-of-age-story of a teenage girl unfolds an atmospheric undertow which solidifies through the parenthetical film music and the non-involved voice from the off of the young protagonist. It's shot mainly in sepia which in its dim alignment contributes to the mysterious beauty of the film. Convincing ensemble: Sarah Peirse personifies Kate with a restless and lascivious sensuality. The performances of Alistair Browning and Marton Csokas require a much more subtlety than their "Lord of the Rings" parts. But the true heart of the film are the wonderful performances of the young artists: the 15 years old Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki who got the New Zealand Film Award as Best Young Talent, and the honestly adorable Aaron Murphy, playing the young, cute brother Jim. "Cinema of Unease", beautiful and uncomfortable at the same time, dangerously calm with subtly accentuated shots of a dusky landscape, the story tells the chronicle of an announced death.

"Rain" adds a striking share to a trilogy of recent films with "Fat Girl (a ma soeur)" and "Girls Can't Swim (Les filles ne savent pas nager)" about young teen girls on vacation Down the Shore with neglectful parents and annoying and sometimes adorable siblings, with each taking a different approach to their sexual exploration. Based on a novella by Kirsty Gunn, New Zealander writer/director Christine Jeffs makes a powerful debut, capturing what the world of dysfunctional marriage, alcoholism, depression and adultery looks like to a girl trying to figure out how to model her behavior.Maybe it's that antipodean take on larrikins, but Jeffs more than the other women filmmakers visually shows just how powerful a draw a sexy man is to a rebellious girl and her frustrated mother -- and maybe how unfortunately irresistible they are to him too ("Like mother, like daughter," he knowingly says.). The patronizing guy in back of me completely disagreed with my interpretation focusing on the girl, instead going on that the movie was really about man's spiritual (and other) impotence causing depression or some such.The beautiful music was by Neil Finn, with an excellent range of moody pop songs mostly by him, and others such as Lisa Germano, that communicated the girl's thoughts, though I can't tell if they are original to the movie.I read the book to see if what I think was left a bit unresolved in the movie was in the book as well. The movie well captures the languorous poetry of the book and follows the basic plot, but emphasizes more the competition of the girl vs. the mother differently and the girl's growing pains, while the book stresses the sibling relationship, quite beautifully.(originally written 5/11/2002)

I just bought Rain on vhs and I have to say that I really loved it. There were some slow parts, but I think that reflected the environment around them. The two young actors were excellent and the story line was good too. I thought that the whole Janey/Cady scene was going to be a lot more explicit than it was, but I wasn't disappointed. Christine Jeffs made a really great film that hit on some tough subjects but was done tastefully. Rain was a great indie film.