''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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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. ''Rain'' was produced by

Philippa Campbell Philippa Campbell is a New Zealand film and television producer and the Literary Manager at the Auckland Theatre Company. Theatre Philippa Campbell began her career in the theatre as an actor and director in the 1980s. In 1981, she was involved in ...

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 sponta ...

. 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 Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki is a New Zealand actress. Her debut performance was in the critically acclaimed film ''Rain''. The Seattle PI newspaper has described the film as "an exquisitely mixed and applied palette of color and hue to help her stor ...

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 Alison Mary Stuart Routledge (born 29 April 1960) is a New Zealand actress, known for her performance as Joanne in the 1985 cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cu ...

as Heather *

Sarah Peirse Sarah Peirse is a New Zealand actress. She works both on screen and stage, best known for her portrayals of two very different mothers — the kind-hearted yet stricken mother Honora Rieper in '' Heavenly Creatures'', and the disaffected sophisti ...

as Kate *

Alistair Browning Alistair Browning (8 February 1954 – 2 June 2019) was a New Zealand actor who won several awards for his work in film, television and theatre, best known for his roles in ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''Rain'', ...

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.

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 {{NewZealand-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Location

See also

References

External links