Rain

Young New Zealand filmmaker Christine Jeffs makes her directorial debut with incredibly risky material that mixes an uncomfortable combo — teenagers and sex.

"Rain," which Jeffs based on the acclaimed 1994 novel by Kirsty Gunn, describes in some detail what happens when a young girl starts to see grown men in a new way.

Jeffs sets her film during the summer of 1972 on a beach somewhere in New Zealand. Here, Kate (Sarah Peirse) and Ed (Alistair Browning), a pair of aging hippies, have rented a cottage where they soak up the sun — and plenty of booze — while their children, 13-year-old Janey (the remarkable Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and 8-year-old Jim (Aaron Murphy), roam the coast, exploring. You sense almost immediately a rift in Kate and Ed's marriage.

At night, they throw parties where alcohol flows freely and hazy smoke fills the air. Every evening seems to end with the guests stripping down in the moonlight and heading into the surf to skinny-dip.

It's at one of these parties that Kate and Ed — and Janey — meet a buff drifter named Cady (Marton Csokas). He's a photographer who travels from place to place in his rugged cabin cruiser, and he generally likes to go around shirtless. Cady catches Kate's eye around the same time that Janey notices him. With his shirt off, he doesn't look much like Dad to Janey and she wants to get close to him.

Kate has the same idea and arranges for Cady to take some photographs of the family. "Rain" is sensual almost immediately, but as Kate drifts into infidelity and as Janey becomes aware of it — and becomes competitive to boot — the film takes on a more ominous tone. The roadblock that her mother represents makes Janey all the more antsy and impatient.

The film's quintet of performances, under Jeffs' astute direction, is flawless, although the men have precious little to do. But Peirse is frighteningly believable as a randy, bored woman, and Fulford-Wierzbicki and Murphy are even better as kids left to fend for — and entertain — themselves.

Fulford-Wierzbicki does a highly intuitive, nuanced turn as a young girl fighting against turning into her own mother — wanting to reach out to Cady and yet cognizant that, if she does, she'll be exactly like Kate.

"Rain" is not rated but would probably receive an R for scenes of simulated sex, male and female nudity, use of strong, sex-related profanity and crude sexual slang terms, and brief violence. Running time: 92 minutes.