TheUnknown837-1 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.

Jeremy Bristol 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

RayDiant 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.

eewittme The acting (particularly by Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and cinematography of this movie are so well put-together that it makes the movie's horrible cliche of an ending that much more painful and embarrassing.(Here come the spoilers)Jim's death at the end of the movie is a cheap gimmick that director Christine Jeffs telegraphs from square one. It's a lame, moralizing made-for-TV-movie plot device that attempts to somehow punish the film's characters for their perceived moral transgressions (Janey and Jim's parents' drinking and Janey's experimentation with sex). By killing off Jim immediately after (or during, it's not clear) his sister's first experimentation with sex, the cast and crew of "Rain" come across as a bunch of holier-than-thou moralists. "This is what happens when innocent young children are left unsupervised so the adults can go off and drink and have sex," we can almost hear Jeffs saying while she wags her finger at her audience.It's not clear if Jim's death is something taken from Kirsty Gunn's novel or if it's introduced in Jeffs' adaptation. Whatever the case, Jeffs ought to have had the sense not to kill off Jim right after Janey's encounter with Cady. The final quarter or so of the movie should be about Janey coming to grips with her encounter with Cady. Instead, Jeffs rips the focus away from an uncomfortable subject by drowning Jim, after which she tries to tidy up the movie with a quick funeral and another cliche, the "driving home in a car after a tragic event" scene. "And after that summer, I was never the same," we can almost hear Fulford-Wierzbicki saying during the film's final voiceover.It's almost as if Jeffs is afraid to let Fulford-Wierzbicki act out her character's reaction to her sexual awakening, or to show her parents acting out their split on screen. It's an awful way to end a movie, and I can't recommend this movie to anyone but moralizing, condescending types who like nothing more than to see characters suffer for sins that are actually little more than character flaws.