Rain (2001)

The debut film by director Christine Jeffs, RAIN, records with charm the confusion of coming of age amidst domestic disintegration. In Far North New Zealand in 1972, Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) has traveled to the beach for a long lazy summer with her family. As the days get longer, Janey teaches her little brother, Jim (Aaron Murphy), to swim while their Scotch-sedated parents ignore each other, wallowing in their messy marriage. From hungover days to beach party nights, they fake their way through parenting. It is late into one such night, while party music plays loudly, that Janey's mother, Kate (Sarah Peirse), lulls photographer Cady (Marton Csokas) into a swirling secret embrace. Though Janey detests the drunken dramatics, her mother's boozing and flirting symbolize the freedoms of adulthood, so Janey steals sips and smokes, and kisses the neighbor kid. But he's just a boy, and Janey's becoming a woman, so she sets her sights instead on her mother's pick, Cady.