Rain

Sunday afternoons are great times for watching movies.  Today I streamed this movie titled Rain.  The movie is based on a book of the same name written by V.C. Andrews.  The story is a very interesting one.  The main character is an African American teenager named Rain Arnold.  Rain lives in the inner city with her parents Latishia and Ken Arnold, her sister Bennie (Beneatha) and her brother Roy.

Rain is the model child.  She does well in school, is well behaved and helps her mother with the cooking and cleaning.   Rain is also a talented piano player and singer.   Rain's sister Bennie, on the other hand hangs around people who are involved with gangs and drugs.  One night Bennie is drugged and raped.  Shortly afterwards Bennie is killed and Rain is witness to it.  In order to protect her daughter Latishia sends Rain to live with her rich grandmother that she never knew exised  It comes as a shock to Rain when she learns that Latishia is not her biological mother.   Rain's biological mother is actually a rich white socialite.  

This is a movie that makes you feel real good at the end, but overall there is so much that could have been done to make this a great movie.  The acting for one is not the best.  Brooklyn Sudano plays Rain Arnold.  This is my first time seeing Brooklyn in a movie so I really cannot say much about her acting ability in general.  In this particular movie I found Brooklyn's performance very weak   There are some good moments, but overall Brooklyn was not entirely convincing to me in the role.  

Faye Dunaway was superb as Rain's biological grandmother Isabel Hudson.  Khandi Alexander also gave an outstanding performance as Rain's step mother Latishia.  Miss Alexander looks a lot like actress Tasha Smith.  Giancarlo Esposito plays Rain's step father Ken.  

                      Brooklyn Sudano and Khandi Alexander

Jerrika Hinton does a fine job as Bennie.

Kudos to Julius Washington for his performance as Roy.

Faye Dunaway is a seasoned and gifted actress

Giancarlo Esposito is convincing as Ken the step father who is a down on his luck loser.

A screen cap from Rain.  Brooklyn Sudano as Rain, Jerrika Hinton as Bennie and the very handsome Julius Washington as Roy.

 Khandi Alexander as Latishia Arnold and Brooklyn Sudano as Rain.

 Giancarlo Esposit as Ken in a scene with Khandi Alexander.

 Brooklyn Sudano playing the piano as Rain Arnold.

There are so many missed opportunities in this movie.  I would have loved to see more focus on the budding love relationship that Rain was developing with the young man at the new school.  I am glad that I watched this movie anyway because it is a movie that does move you and at the end makes you feel good.