The debut film by director Christine Jeffs, RAIN, records with charm the confusion of coming of age amidst domestic disintegration. In Far North New Zealand in 1972, Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) has traveled to the beach for a long lazy summer with her family. As the days get longer, Janey teaches her little brother, Jim (Aaron Murphy), to swim while their Scotch-sedated parents ignore each other, wallowing in their messy marriage. From hungover days to beach party nights, they fake their way through parenting. It is late into one such night, while party music plays loudly, that Janey's mother, Kate (Sarah Peirse), lulls photographer Cady (Marton Csokas) into a swirling secret embrace. Though Janey detests the drunken dramatics, her mother's boozing and flirting symbolize the freedoms of adulthood, so Janey steals sips and smokes, and kisses the neighbor kid. But he's just a boy, and Janey's becoming a woman, so she sets her sights instead on her mother's pick, Cady.

As the title suggests, the oceanic climate of New Zealand leads to dramatic changes of weather, and also reflect RAIN's mid-film change of heart. RAIN first sparkles like the bright blue sea and warm summer nights in the glow of fairy lights, then crumbles under bruised bourbon-colored skies. With a superb musical score, the Split Enz' Neil Finn band provides retro-styled melancholia indebted to the Brothers Gibb.

Theatrical Release (New Zealand): October 2001.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33

Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki: Actor, RAIN (2001)
Aaron Murphy: Actor, RAIN (2001)
Sarah Peirse: Actress/"Heavenly..."
Marton Csokas: 
Alistair Browning: Actor, RAIN (2002)

Christine Jeffs: Actor, RAIN (2001)

Philippa Campbell: Producer, RAIN (2001)

Christine Jeffs: Actor, RAIN (2001)

Neil Finn: Pop Singer, Ex-Crowded House
Edmund McWilliams: Composer, RAIN (2001)

"...You walk out of the theater shaken but impressed by the talents of the entire creative team..."
"...Ms. Jeffs handles the volatile material of her story with devastating calm....The poise that Ms. Fulford-Wierzbicki demonstrates is uncanny..."
"...Fulford-Wierzbicki delivers a striking performance....An intimate, visceral portrait of an adolescent finding her power..."
"...RAIN is a sensual, moody coming-of-age drama of wide implications and stunning impact....A breathtakingly assured and stylish work of spare dialogue and acute expressiveness..."
"...When it hits, it packs a wallop....[Fulford-Weirzbicki] is a talent to be reckoned with..."
"...Rain unfolds in a series of telling snapshots....The performance of newcomer Aaron Murphy as Jim is wonderfully natural..."
"...An intelligent, alluring debut..."
"A wise and wonderful film from New Zealand, Christine Jeff's debut feature is essentially, though not only, a coming-of-age story."