FEAR OF RAIN
US, 2021, 109 minutes, Colour.
Katherine Heigl, Harry Connick Jr, Madison Iseman, Israel Broussard.
Directed by Castille Landon.
This is a drama about schizophrenia. It also has thriller overtones.
Rain is the central character, a teenager still at school, played by Madison Iseman. She has hallucinations, words appearing on screen indicating what she hears, confusion and phobias, threatened with institutional life but agreeing to take medication, to return home with her parents, Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick Jr, and to go to school. She seems to manage well enough at home, especially with her painting. However, she is ridiculed and bullied at school by other girls but draws the attention of a friendly young student, Caleb (Israel Broussard).
One complication is that her history teacher lives next door, is filmed in a rather sinister way, tries to help Rain but Rain at times sees a young child at an attic window and accuses the teacher of abduction, and listing Caleb’s help, going online to identify faces of abducted children, entering into the house, the teacher reacting and calling the police.
Caleb and Rain become very friendly but the suggestion is that she is imagining him.
Spoiler alert: one of the shocks of the film is that Rain’s mother is dead and that she is alive in Rain’s imagination. She ultimately has a confrontation with her father who has been caring for her. On the other hand, it emerges that the teacher is guilty and there is a raid on the house.
Rain is reassured when Caleb is real – but, the film does not advocate an easy cure. Rain still imagines her mother with her, talking to her, reassuring her.
- The title? Rain as the central character? The schizophrenia and the consequences?
- The town, school, homes? The surrounding countryside? Atmosphere? Musical score?
- The issue of schizophrenia? The one personality? Voices, hallucinations, terror? The screenplay creating an atmosphere, Rain hearing voices, words on the screen? The variety of episodes? People appearing, disappearing? Images in mirrors? Mood swings?
- Rain at hospital, her parents, treatment, medication, the issue of institutions or not? Her going home? Life at home with her parents, confiding in her mother, love for her mother? Her father doing his best, redecorating the room, his cooking career, meals at home? Rain making the meal for her parents? Rain in her room, dreams, the fearful hallucinations and threats? Painting, her mother?
- The thriller aspects? The teacher in class, neighbour, pictured in a sinister way, Rain and her accusations, the abducted child, going into the house, the teacher and her complaints? Rain getting Caleb to go into the house? His running away, disappearing? The two and the Internet search, abducted children, Rain identifying the child? Ultimately going into the house, the teacher by herself and the food, Rain fighting the child, the threats from the teacher, both saved, Caleb? The teacher and the arrest?
- Rain, being mocked at school, in the dining room, the girls? Their fear of her? Caleb, friendship, the approach, at the meals, afterwards, going out together, the gradual revelation of her condition? At home, her mother catching them? Caleb going into the teacher’s home, disappearing, the return? That he was real?
- The revelation that Rain was imagining her mother, the reality of her mother’s death, going to the cemetery? The father looking out by himself? His exasperation with the teacher and her complaints?
- The resolution, friendship with Caleb, support from her father – yet the finale and her imagining her mother again?
