Like Sunday, Like Rain

17 February 2016. There are reasons this movie might be an "eight" instead of a "seven," but there still remains the inherent fundamental weakness in its very attempt at qualitative greatness. What so great about this movie is its avoidance of the pretentious, mainstream dramatic plot outline that directs the pacing and acting and plot of the entire story. Like Sunday, Like Rain dismisses such pablum for an excellent independent style movie narrative. Yet it is the very attempt of this focus on independence that part of the story seems to lose. Unlike Lost In Translation (2003) where the focus is almost required by the story to be exclusively on two people, Frank Whaley directs his own script with a number of characters several of which seem to have some importance to the story but don't seem to get be developed very well nor tied up very well. In short a number of characters are introduced and them dumped. With Room (2015), the nature and the focus on two primary characters being the essence of the story can command the entire movie when necessary. Even years before Richard Dreyfus's Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), his portrayal in a multi-layered duo character movie The Competition (1980) regardless Dreyfus's worse actor award notwithstanding review how consistently engrossing and emotively appealing a movie can be.

Reggie is a highly intelligent lonely 12 year old boy living with is overwhelmed mother in a mansion in New York. He doesn't have a lot of friends and seems bored to death with life. Eleanor is a 20 something from a poor background who just broke up with her loser boyfriend. She stumbles into the "live in" job of being Reggie's nanny while Reggie's mom goes to China for a few months. Reggie ditches the plan for him to attend camp during the summer and Reggie and Eleanor spend the summer together and well... develop strong feelings for each other. Though a little slow sometimes I enjoyed this very much. The actor that played Reggie was wonderful and like a 35 year old man in a 12 year old's body. Leighton Meester was quite good too. It is a simple, but good story, of people and emotions. With a bittersweet end to the story. I really wouldn't mind seeing a sequel to this when Reggie is 20.

This drama paints a striking portrait of Reggie (Julian Shatkin), a wealthy and neglected twelve-year-old prodigy with the maturity of a middle-aged man; and Eleanor ( Leighton Meester), a broke ex-musician in her twenties recently out of work, boyfriend and home, who lands a job as Reggie's au pair for the summer in Manhattan while his mother (Debra Messing) travels overseas. Written and directed by Frank Whaley, produced by Uri Singer, and breathtaking cinematography by James Jones.

This film took a very different, almost romantic approach with a charming, artistic, sensitive yet domineering child rather than the traditional spoiled brat who hates the nanny. The two hit it off right away. Eleanor naturally accepts his maturity and treats him as an equal when she realizes that trying to be the grown-up in the relationship is pointless in the company of a genius. In many ways, Reggie takes better care of her than she does of him.

The conflict doesn't stem from the relationship between these two unlikely friends, but from their personal lives. This could have been why it felt a bit lacking in conflict overall, because no major problems arise between the two main characters. However, this blossoming friendship is where the unexpected bulk of the humor comes from, with witty and surprising dialogue between these very different but equally troubled characters learning how to co-exist.

Several things were set up or talked about that were never paid off, which underplayed the conflict and there wasn't enough of a resolution. Rather than showing how the characters have grown or been changed and strengthened by one another, the whole final act kind of feels like a montage of shots of them missing each other while trying to go back to their previous lives.

Very good acting, Julian Shatkin is phenomenal, the film is worth watching for his performance alone; not to take away from the rest of the cast. Leighton Meester is very natural in her role, Debra Messing is quite funny as an unjustifiably stressed-out woman whose normal routine includes going to the spa and on exotic vacations; and Georgia Ximenes Lifsherr is hilarious as Eleanor's best friend Silvia. Even Eleanor's parents who, while not in much of the film, manage to stay memorable with their hostile quirks. We weren't very impressed with Billie Joe Armstrong's performance as Dennis, Eleanor's boyfriend. His style was pretty over-the-top and childlike, very "acty," not terribly believable. Overall film score: 9/10. Here's the breakdown:

– Story: 8/10 — Characters: 10/10 — Acting: 9/10 (would be 10/10 if not for Billie Joe's performance) — Cinematography: 10/10 — Soundtrack: 10/10 — Most Lacked: Conflict & Character Arc

I enjoyed very much this story: the encounter of Eleanor and Reggie.Leanore needs a work and a place to stay, Reggie is a solitary music prodigy, who lives quite alone and he has had troubles with his former caretakers.Then appears Eleanor and little will grow a friendship: both are musicians and then a relationship with a lot of tenderness and affection. This film is also about self-improvement: Eleanor will discover again her pleasure to play music. The performances of Leighton Meester and Julian Shatkin are really very good.

"Like Sunday, Like Rain" (2014 release; 105 min.) brings the story of Eleanor and Reggie. As the movie opens, we see Reggie wake up and start his day. Reggie is a 12 yr. old wunderkind who plays the cello and is a math-whiz, but he's also living a pretty lonely existence even if in a well-to-do environment. His mom is having a fit because the live-in nanny just quit (or was forced to leave the country because of her visa). In a parallel story, we also get to know Eleanor, in her early 20s. She also just woke up, realizing her boyfriend never came home the night before. It's not long before Eleanor breaks up and moves out, and in a subsequent confrontation by her ex-boyfriend at her work, she is fired from her waitressing job. In desperation, Eleanor goes to a temp agency for nannies, and as luck would have it, she is hired as the new live-in nanny for Reggie. As this point we're not even 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie written and directed by actor Frank Whaley. This time he chooses to bring the story of an unlikely but blossoming friendship between Reggie and Eleanor. Reggie needs Eleanor just as much as she needs him, in fact she may need Reggie more, as she is down on her luck, with an annoying boyfriend, an ailing father and a strained relationship with the rest of her family. Beware: this movie is not for anyone in a hurry, and there is no major plot to speak of, so if you don't like a movie where there's lot of talking and little or no action, do yourself a favor and watch something else. It is a darn shame that this movie is rated "R" (the F word is used twice, and it wasn't even necessary and didn't make the movie any more "authentic"), as a key potential audience (the 14 to 17 yr. old) is probably not going to get to see this now. As to the acting performances, both leads (Leighton Meester as Elanor and Julian Shatkin as Reggie) give stellar performances and I hope we'll see more of them in due course. However, Billie Joe Armstrong (yes, he of Green Day) is completely miscast as Eleanor's boyfriend (for one, he is WAY too old, and for another, his acting skills are lacking). Also, there is a fair amount of classical music in the movie, so if that's not your thing, beware. I quite liked the classical segments, and the overall musical score, courtesy of Ed Hardcourt. Bottom line: not knowing much of anything about this movie before seeing it, I was pleasantly surprised by this and charmed from start to finish.

This movie was shot in New York 2 years ago, and shown at various film festivals last year. Why it's taken this long to appear in the theaters, I have no idea. I recently saw this at the Silverspot Cinema in Naples, FL. The matinée screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great. If you are ready for something other than the usual "Furious 7" or "Ant-Man" fare that Hollywood is sending our way, this movie might just do the trick for you. "Like Sunday, Like Rain" is definitely worth checking out, be it in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.