Rain (2001)
Janey is on vacation with her brother, Jim, mother, Kate, and father Ed, at their beach house on the Mahurangi Peninsual in New Zealand. Ed and Kate, who are on the verge of divorce, sit around in the back yard all day drinking whiskey and Janey and Jim are left to their own devices. Cady, a local boaty who is having an affair with Kate, catches Janey's pubescent eye. In response to his wife's drinking problem and recurring infidelity, Ed turns to alcohol, ignoring his children almost as much as his wife, which eventually leads to a character's fate.
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i must have seen a different film!!
Good movie but grossly overrated
Excellent but underrated film
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Like most of the other posters here, I loved Rain for most of the movie--no, it's nothing earth-shattering, but then, most coming-of-age stories aren't. The young lead does a great job portraying a somewhat cliched character (young girl who "seduces" older man because she feels boys her age are immature), giving her an amount of vehemence that is startling at times.Unfortunately, there's the ending which has already been mentioned, so I won't spoil it again. However, I will say that, with the current ending, it pretty much negates any importance the movie would have had. If the filmmaker's were adamant about keeping that part of the story, if that's what they thought was important, then I feel that the whole movie could have been done in ten minutes. In fact, I've seen several movies that begin where this movie leaves off. 2.5 out of 5 stars
"Not much to add" (that's how I started - before writing all that follows...!) to the positive statements made in the other user-comments I've read before seeing this remarkable movie tonight.(just in case: IT IS ABOUT Janey, a young girl in her teens, experiencing new feelings while watching the marriage of her parents finalizing its disintegration during the summer holidays, and her mother allowing herself into adventures Janey both despises and envies...).It's not often I get drawn into a motion picture like I did into this one. It has got a thoroughly admirable quality of obviousness, thanks to the perfect way everything - the story, the photography, the rythm, the actors - merges to give the film its "harmony", some kind of "flowing completeness" that is, indeed, known to me more by listening to music than from watching a movie.The dream-like quality has been rightly pointed out, and I might add that the relationship Janey has with her little brother (yes, that small born comedian is sort of a little miracle by himself...) makes me want to have had a sister (which I didn't) I'd have gotten along with just that well...As I read somewhere, Christine Jeffs has directed several music videos, and that certainly shows, but in the best way possible (not only mastering the means, but having already a VERY personal and original way of using them !).Small regrets are that I found the score itself (which otherwise contributes to the whole just as well as everything else does) is a bit too invading at some moments, where Jeffs just should have trusted the power of her visual language... AND I share with other IMDb-users that feeling of complete bewilderment, when faced with THIS seemingly USELESS ending/showdown...(what IS this??? WHAT FOR???)which almost, but just almost, trashes the whole experience... although it allows for a brief, and in my opinion breathtaking, reconciliation sequence between mother and daughter.Very warmly recommended; just forget everything I wrote before and enjoy a work of art of a movie !AND THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO RECOMMENDED IT !
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.
Janey and her family spend their summers at their lakeside vacation home. The lake is a refuge for Janey and her little brother Jim. Janey tries teaching Jim to swim in the day, and at night, their parents parade them around as entertainment for their friends at their endless beach parties. Janey seems to resent her mother and the way she treats her father. She realizes her parent's photographer friend is more than a friend to her mother...much more. Janey begins to fixate on the photographer and offers to be more than his photography subject which she ends up paying for dearly. This film is directed by Christine Jeffs and is her first feature film. She has won awards for her Television Commercial Direction which is understandable in the film Rain through her use of slow motion photography. There are several slow motion shots that filter in and out of the film giving it a surreal yet creepy feel.The pacing is comfortably slow and feels right for the story. The plot unfolds naturally and pulls you in for a gentle ride that unexpectedly becomes thrilling towards the panicked end. Janey is so easy to fall in love with. Her emotions are human and easy to relate to and I felt like I understood her to the core.Actress Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki plays Janey and captured my heart with her honest performance. Her performance is very impressive, especially considering this is her first feature film and she comes across as an experienced natural. Aaron Murphy plays the little brother and he is precious and real. The casting for this film is right on and makes this character driven movie 5 stars.This film is based on the novel Rain by Kirsty Gunn. This is one of the first times that a movie was more impressive than the book on which it was based.