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Perfect cast and a good story

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

This movie has a long, long line of events that prepare us for tragic ending. And it still comes unexpected, unless you've read the spoiler-containing comments.Having read other comments, I don't want to repeat what's been written. I'll share some thoughts about author's relation to characters, plot and year it happens.(IF YOU DON'T LIKE LONG COMMENTS SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH) First we notice that the director's relation to characters seems to be rather cold. We see a wife having a barely hidden affair and her husband not caring much. Is he used to, does he have affairs of his own, or he simply has no feelings for his wife any more, or maybe never even had? Or is this a kind of free love from flower-power? Is he resignated and waiting for the divorce, or is this situation convenient for him too? He can drink, stay home, go away, hang around with kids or ignore them and always have an excuse, he has a bad marriage. The parties these people take part night after night with their friends (turists as themselves) seem to be rather wild, with drinks, smoking, and maybe some drugs (I haven't noticed them, but...), wild enough that they (especially mother) need a lot of morning hours to recover (and prepare for next evening). During parties they swim nude, though they are not naturists (we never see them swim nude otherwise, even on such marvelous locations that simply lure for skinny-dipping - I can only dream to ever get there), so it is alcochol that rinses their inhibitions away. A girl, young teenager, has a few drinks, a few cigarettes, and her mother's reaction is weak, maybe just because she has an impression she should say something. But, being the one who is smoking and drinking and going alone with her lover, she knows she can't judge her daughter for following her steps. And the daughter goes forward, she chooses mother's lover to be her own as well. Is this the mother-daughter competition, the way daughter proves herself and builds her self-esteem, maybe trying to save her parent's marriage by taking mother's lover for herself or just imitating mother's behaving? We are left unanswered. (Btw, some people ask what happened between Janey and Cody. Did they watch some cut version, or do they really need an X-rated graphic version to understand what's going on?).After her brother's death there is an interesting, underestimated scene between mother and daughter. The girl blames herself for the accident, and mother comforts her. But this comfort is weak, inconclusive. It looks as if mother found a grain of consciousness but won't admit it and hopes for someone to say it's not her fault either. As they are rivals, both having an affair with same man, their guilt is equal, both were acting against the family. If they comfort and forgive each other, their own guilt will grow and they are not able to cope with it.The way all these events end gives us an answer why is the director on such a distance. She simply doesn't like any of the characters except the little child (as women often do), making him a victim to emphasize all the things she doesn't like in the world she is showing us. And she has no mercy and no understanding for any of these sinful adults.Just remember the last scene when the boy appears alive on the beach. He looks as if he knows it's all over, his world has collapsed, I can imagine this was the way children looked when they realized they'd be sacrificed to ancient pagan gods. This is a look that transfers a director's message: look what (and why!) happened to this cute kid, and most of viewers will agree, yes all those bad, bad people are guilty because of drinking, smoking, taking drugs, nude swimming, dancing, adultery, premarital sex, teenage sex, OK - sex in general; having headaches, pretending to have headaches, making photos, sailing, not sailing, going on holidays... well, doing anything amusing at all. It should all be forbidden to make the world better.Finally, why 1972? It seems as if the authors had some very bad experiences in 1970's and want to confront them. The basic plot could have happened in any period of history (even future), but the year looks to be carefully chosen, and none of the stereotypes people have about those years has been omitted. condemned After Manson "family" killed Sharon Tate and her guests four years before, making people realize the danger of drugs, Easy Rider was history in USA. Some (very) bad things in flower-power made people neglect positive sides of it. Few extreme situations were excuse for some people to terminate freedom movements, and plant a seed of paranoia that is blossoming today. Conclusion: the condemned life style led to L.A. murders, and it also led to Jim's death. We got analyzing the ten commandments one by one, then seven mortal sins, in more strict version than in ordinary churches (Pope John Paul II would forgive this sinners, and imams would maybe call back their fetvas, but there is no mercy from authors). The director must be a Saint herself. But if Christine Jeffs isn't Mother Theresa's pseudonym I can neither understand the authors nor feel sympathy for whatever happened to them in the 1970's.

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.

Rain is the type of New Zealand movie that New Zealanders love. Slice of Kiwiana presented with high art mixed with bleakness.People have berated the double barreled ending as contrived but it is also symbolic. Janey comes of age through one event and is hit home that she can't go back through the other.The acting is great. And the cinematography almost steals the show.Kiwi batch life is presented in full force. A young girl's all too fast growing up because of the parents selfishness is presented with only a hint of sentimentality and emotional manipulation.