I saw Bringing Rain on Sunday with my Mother, on Mother's day. We both wept. Why? Maybe because it reminded us both of when I was in highschool some fifteen years ago, and having a hard time, struggling with depression. Or maybe, and probably more likely, we wept because we were totally taken by surprise at how deep and honest the movie was. We had no idea what we were going to, but figured, at the least, it would be a fun highschool movie. So when the movie began to unfold and it became clear that it was more like a poem by T.S. Eliot than Dawson's Creek, we both turned to each other with smiles: Well, lookie what we have here, we seemed to say to each other. And what do we have here with this movie? A lot. First of all, it's style is incredibly original. It has a liquid flow to it that I usually associate more with music. It's fluid, lucid. That's the first thing I noticed. The second is that the characters, though young, are never condescended. They are terribly real, and flawed, and great, and heroic. The actors almost never hit a false note. I read one of the reviews on this site that said it looks like a Japanese anime movie, with the empty halls, and gyms. I agree, it does look and feel like a Japanese anime cartoon. It also feels like maybe a movie would feel like if M.Night directed a highschool movie. The M.Night thing also is there with the character of Clay Askins, played elegantly by Adrian Grenier. I wasn't sure while watching the movie if Clay was a ghost or not. I'm glad that he wasn't a ghost because that woulda been kinda tacky and maybe just a ploy to make some money and make the movie commercial. Thankfully, Noah Buschel has written a movie that is not like that at all. Someone may be a ghost emotionally, but they are not Patrick Swayze. This is also refreshing. There are no heroes in the movie and there are no evil people either. Everyone is both. It's a movie about potential. The potential in everyone to do the right or wrong thing. To hide or to be seen. To lie or be honest. Niesha Butler, apparently a newcomer, is a standout in the movie for me. Her face is not like that of most young actors(perhaps this can be explained by her bio which says she is a basketball player.) Every time she is on screen the movie seems to hit a new high and Buschel's point never seems more clear than when Grenier and Butler are in the scene together, seperately. They are truly heartbreaking, and not in a Robin Williams forced kind of way. More like in a Elia Kazan 50's movies kind of way. The 50's movies are clearly a huge influence on the piece. Grenier has the James Dean role, which he pulls off very nicely. Larisa Oleynik, Merritt Wever and Paz de la Huerta have the Natalie Wood roles- sort of strange, crazy, pretty things on the edge. They also deliver knockout performances. The funniest scene in the movie is Wever and de la Huerta sitting at a lunch table talking about love and "artist men." They are ridiculous in the way that highschool girls can be and yet the movie takes them totally seriously and I found myself doing so as well. The Stanley Kowalski role goes to Rodrigo Lopresti, who gives a very honest performance. He's not as handsome as Grenier, or as flashy as Paz de la Huerta, but he is the glue of the movie. He's a good, young subtle actor, and his acting is small and real and in the details. I was surprised to see this is also his first film. The only other actors I want to mention are Ryan Donowho and Nathalie Paulding, who absolutely light up the screen together in the last scene of the movie. Oh, and also, I must mention Alexis Dzeina. Early in the movie, it is her face in closeup that gave me the feeling that I was not in a normal highschool. She is like the highscool student from outer space. And once she has graced the screen the rest of the movie feels more and more surreal, and universal, and big. It was a good Mother's day.
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