New Zealand 1972: 13-year-old Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) spends the summer with her family near a "paradise likely" beautiful beach. Janey "wakes up" to a Lolita with immense sexually interest. Her mother Kate, like a Greek goddess, is afraid of losing her beauty. Already somewhat weathered, are her children an affectionate father, but whenever he strives for his wife, she rejects it. Thus he drowns his grief in Bourbon- and beach parties.((A small comment to a small mistake in a detail:Camera closeup to one of his whiskey bottles shows a so called EAN Code, a code of stripes which is in worldwide use today, i.e. for scanning articles in super markets.However, this product code was first time in use in the U.S. 1973 (!), so this whiskey bottle in the film (plays in NZ, 1972) must have come there from the future. (-;This excursus only, to show, that a good camera mans work is obviously watched in every detail by some spectators.))Back to the story: A photographer living on a boat makes friend with the family, and later on, secretly he takes photos of Janey, while her brother is drowned in the sea.Overwhelming pictures of camera man John Toon lets "Rain - lightning at the Kiwi beach (Title in Germany)" "float" like a dream.Nearly without words, with a view to the speaking things of the everyday life, Christine Jeffs in their celebrated feature debut creates exciting close tendencies between suspense and tragic necessity - the summer counterpart to Ang Lees film "Ice Storm". To the bitter end "Phantom Love", music by Lisa Germano. Her painfully beautiful voice seems to die at broken heart, but it holds out. "Rain" tells and shows eerily beautifully about "the art of standing though". Hold on!I'm sure, we will see Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki again! I'm looking forward to her next, even better film.

I will admit firsthand that the main draw for me to this movie was Marton Csokas, who is quite possibly the sexiest man alive. That said, I will focus on the fact that this movie had me laughing and crying, entranced and disturbed. While some people like to focus on Janie's irresponsible (and troubling) actions leading to Jim's death, what about mom & dad? Why isn't anyone blaming them? I was a little bothered by the sight of a young girl seducing a grown man, yet the embarrassing desperation of the mother's need for sex with Cady was also difficult to watch. Janie, in my opinion, was a little girl who was jealous of her mom, and made up her mind to be more alluring to Cady. I thought all the cast was wonderful, but back to Marton. Can any man exude raw sex better than Mr. Csokas? I only know that just watching him kiss a woman got my heart racing, and I would have loved to feel those lips on mine. Overall, this is a movie filled with emotions of every kind, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

I fail to see what the title had to do with the film, but that aside, Rain is a terrific tribute to the director, Christine Jeffs, and both the adult and actors. Right from the beginning, I could strongly sense the barren atmosphere of the location and the self-destructive behaviour of the adults. The acting of the girl/woman and her little brother was stunning, and credit must go to Christine Jeffs for ensuring that exactly the right tone was struck throughout. It so easily could have been a creepy Disney effort had the script not been so deftly performed and directed by such a skilled team. There could hardly be an adult watching this wonderful film who did not have their own childhood flooding back as they watched the girl/woman and her brother interact.

This film was delicious to watch. Some of the cinematography was really striking, as were some of the cinematographic choices, such as the sparing use of very brief black-and-white shots. I also liked the depictions of children at play (one moment in particular: when Jim cavorts in the dimly lit front yard at dusk in semi-slow-mo in a dracula cape, in a sort of scene-change-sideshow-distraction, innocently echoing the ominous tone of the previous scene). The play really rang true, reminding me of my own interactions with my siblings. The relationship between the two children was endearing and a welcome relief from the other very draining relationships in the movie.I spent most of the film wondering whether a particular event was going to happen, and I felt that the few moments after it did happen near the end were the best of the film, UP UNTIL something else happened that I felt was a little over the top. The former event brought together the relationships that Janey, the young protagonist, had with all of the other characters in such rich, complex, achingly painful ways, it really left me in awe. It was a very strange experience, then, to have the second, over the top event happen not a minute later. I really felt this last event was unnecessary, and it cut me off from fully appreciating the best moment of the film.So, the first 94 minutes or so were really great, and the last three, while they did cut me off from my greatest moment of admiration, did not detract from the overall greatness of the film.