''Rain'' is a 2001 New Zealand film directed by
Christine Jeffs. A debut film by Jeffs, it was released in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
in 2001 and internationally in 2002. It concerns the coming of age of 13-year-old Janey, and is based on the novel ''Rain'', written by
Kirsty Gunn
Kirsty Gunn (born 1960, New Zealand) is a novelist and writer of short stories.
Her stories include "Rain", which led to the 2001 film of the same name, directed by Christine Jeffs and also the 2001 ballet by the Rosas Company, set to "Music f ...
. ''Rain'' was produced by
Philippa Campbell.
Plot
Janey is on vacation with her brother Jim, mother Kate, and father Ed, at their beach house on the
Mahurangi Peninsula in New Zealand. Ed and Kate, who are on the verge of divorce, sit in the backyard all day drinking whisky, leaving their young children to amuse and fend for themselves. Cady, a local boatie who is having an affair with Kate, catches Janey's pubescent eye. In response to his wife's problems with alcohol and infidelity, Ed turns to alcohol, neglecting his children almost as much as his wife. When Janey sees Cady photographing Kate on his boat, she persuades him to take pictures of her as well. Then, like her mother, she wants something else from him.
Leaving little Jim alone on the beach, Janey leads Cady high into the woods. After posing for him, she takes his camera and tells him how to pose. She adjusts his shirt and tells him to strip off. Then she puts his camera aside and starts touching him all over. They kiss, her head tilts back, and the screen goes black-and-white.
In the next scene, a camera shot from far above shows Janey as she lies alone in the woods naked. She is next seen walking back down the woody hillside to the beach with her clothes on. Off in the distance she sees her brother's body. She runs the length of the beach to him, screaming his name.
When she reaches him, she launches into frenzied
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spont ...
. Her father arrives and takes over the CPR. Janey begs him, "Make him breathe!" and when he says he is trying, she yells at him that he is not. They eventually accept that they are too late to save Jim and, by extension, the family.
Cast
*
Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki as Janey
*
Marton Csokas
Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...
as Cady
* Aaron Murphy as Jim
*
Alison Routledge as Heather
*
Sarah Peirse as Kate
*
Alistair Browning as Ed
Location
''Rain'' was shot on location around the Mahurangi Peninsula on the eastern coast of New Zealand's North Island in April–May 2000, with the coastal beach and mudflats replacing
Lake Taupō
Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; mi, Taupō-nui-a-Tia or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of the Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's no ...
which was the setting of the novel the film was based upon. The central location was Scandretts Bay beach in
Scandrett Regional Park, prior to conservation work being completed.
See also
*
Nymphet
References
External links
*
Review at RottenTomatoes.com
New Zealand drama films
2001 films
2001 drama films
Films based on New Zealand novels
2000s English-language films
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