Rain

Rain was the first feature from successful commercials and short film director, Christine Jeffs. A 1970s family summer holiday is the context for a poetically haunting exploration of adolescent confusion and midlife disappointment: from sunburnt innocence to the fall of the film’s tragic conclusion.

The film was adapted from the eponymous 1994 novel by Kirsty Gunn. The novel is told from the perspective of 13-year old Janey and the film keeps the focus on Janey and her teenage discoveries, entwined in the self absorption of the adults around her.

The book is set in Taupo in the 1970s. Jeffs relocates the film to a bay of baches on the Mahurangi Peninsula. The satisfactions of nostalgia for a languid golden-hour — when paisley-clad parents drank whiskey sours, smoked, danced and flirted at beach parties, while the kids were left to amuse themselves (swimming, exploring) — are slowly eroded by an undercurrent of roiling tension.

Considered and visually striking metaphors run throughout the film and are evocatively captured by director of photography John Toon. Boats lilt, useless, amongst the mudflats’ ebbing tide. Says director Christine Jeffs, "water was important. It didn't need to be a lake, and it didn't need to be the sea. It was just about water."

The moody mudflats, wide open spaces and tidal ebbs and flows are an apt setting for a story awash in sublimated desire. The marriage of Janey’s parents is worn and unshed tears are mirrored in heavy clouds. The water is threat, lure and sustenance: the young girl has one foot paddling in childhood and the other in a sea of mixed emotion.

Rain is a finely executed observation of the smallest, yet most significant, moments that pass between people, often played out in silence. Emotions never explode as much as stain. Around the silences are the sounds of the sea and a supple (first-time) film composition by Neil Finn.

The acting is outstanding, almost surprisingly so, especially that of the two young leads, Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki and Aaron Murphy; alongside the experienced Marton Csokas, Alistair Browning and Sarah Peirse as the listless adults.

In the novel there's a passage of grafted wisdom: "Things just happen, that's all. And then they're gone." The intense slow-burning film made sure the 'things' left an indelible mark.

It won awards at the 2002 Asia Pacific Film Festival and the 2001 NZ Film and TV Awards. It attracted international attention and saw Jeffs selected on Variety’s 2002 ‘Ten Directors to Watch’ list. Enthusiastic reviews appeared in everything from the NZ Herald (which named Rain one of the 10 best films of the year) to the New York Times.

Many singled out Peirse for special praise. New York Newsday writer Jan Stuart argued that she "delivers a gorgeously haunted performance that is no less sympathetic for its subtlety”.

Kevin Thomas remarked in the LA Times: “[Rain is] a sensual, moody coming-of-age drama of wide implications and stunning impact that marks an important feature debut for New Zealand writer-director Christine Jeffs.”