RAIN (2001)
Taking place in a remote coastal community of baches (a kind of rustic DIY holiday home), that mainstay of Kiwi holidaymaking, Christine Jeffs’ remarkable debut feature Rain embraces the cinema of unease aesthetic any appreciator of NZ film will be all too familiar with. 13-year-old Janey (an agonisingly honest performance from newcomer Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and her family return to their sleepy bach over a long summer, a seemingly idyllic escape clouded by Jeffs’ menacing tone which will leave each family member indelibly affected.
Janey’s mother Kate (Sarah Peirse) spends the summer days drinking herself into numbness, medicating against the stagnation of her marriage to the clueless Ed (Alistair Browning), until the arrival of the mysterious and alluring photographer Cady (Marton Csokas) stirs up a potent red haze of lust in the community. What follows is a slippery, tragic examination of the Electra complex as Janey and Kate vie for Cady’s attention, one bursting with youthful curiosity, the other desperate for passion and danger.
Jeffs treads a very fine line with young Janey, often dipping into uncomfortably sexualised territory, but always in the service of the wider film. Her transition into womanhood is key to the unspoken psychosexual struggle between her and her mother, and the two aspects of her mother she comes to fulfill at various points. Forced to take on a maternal role to younger brother Jim (Aaron Murphy) when Kate is busy entertaining guests or surviving through hangovers, Janey experiences the mundanity of what drove Kate to the bottle, yet perceiving the intensity of the attraction to Cady, she begins to transform herself subconsciously into the other half of Kate’s character.
Janey’s mother Kate (Sarah Peirse) spends the summer days drinking herself into numbness, medicating against the stagnation of her marriage to the clueless Ed (Alistair Browning), until the arrival of the mysterious and alluring photographer Cady (Marton Csokas) stirs up a potent red haze of lust in the community. What follows is a slippery, tragic examination of the Electra complex as Janey and Kate vie for Cady’s attention, one bursting with youthful curiosity, the other desperate for passion and danger.
Jeffs treads a very fine line with young Janey, often dipping into uncomfortably sexualised territory, but always in the service of the wider film. Her transition into womanhood is key to the unspoken psychosexual struggle between her and her mother, and the two aspects of her mother she comes to fulfill at various points. Forced to take on a maternal role to younger brother Jim (Aaron Murphy) when Kate is busy entertaining guests or surviving through hangovers, Janey experiences the mundanity of what drove Kate to the bottle, yet perceiving the intensity of the attraction to Cady, she begins to transform herself subconsciously into the other half of Kate’s character.
Sneaking cigarettes and alcohol on the sly, wearing her mother’s clothes and makeup, and demanding Cady take her picture much like he took Kate’s, Janey channels Kate’s lustful id through the filter of her innocence, unaware of what it means or how it will affect those around her.
On the other side Jeffs’ coin are the the male characters of Cady and Ed, mirroring the Kate’s binary character. Here Csokas makes his earliest definitive break away from his awkward Shortland Street character Leonard, and his Cady smoulders into the gaze of Kate and Janey. Browning gives an excellent performance as Ed, making all the right choices to drift largely into the background, fitting the character perfectly. Jeffs accentuates the disparity between the two with clever visual cues adding more to the psychosexual tension of Rain, such as when Ed pulls his tiny dinghy alongside Cady’s much larger cruiser.
Visually sumptuous and darkly unsettling, Rain builds to a tragic conclusion that is foreshadowed from the first frame, the only complaint being that it may be a little too predictable. That said, the joy of Rain is in the tone and themes, not so much the plot, and Jeffs’ take on a well entrenched NZ style gives one of the finest films produced in the country.
On the other side Jeffs’ coin are the the male characters of Cady and Ed, mirroring the Kate’s binary character. Here Csokas makes his earliest definitive break away from his awkward Shortland Street character Leonard, and his Cady smoulders into the gaze of Kate and Janey. Browning gives an excellent performance as Ed, making all the right choices to drift largely into the background, fitting the character perfectly. Jeffs accentuates the disparity between the two with clever visual cues adding more to the psychosexual tension of Rain, such as when Ed pulls his tiny dinghy alongside Cady’s much larger cruiser.
Visually sumptuous and darkly unsettling, Rain builds to a tragic conclusion that is foreshadowed from the first frame, the only complaint being that it may be a little too predictable. That said, the joy of Rain is in the tone and themes, not so much the plot, and Jeffs’ take on a well entrenched NZ style gives one of the finest films produced in the country.
Rain is available on DVD from Mighty Ape