Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Like Sunday, Like Rain (2015)

Leighton Meester (left) and Julian Shatkin in the
coming of age drama "Like Sunday, Like Rain."
A precocious and lonely music prodigy meets a young woman in transition in the wonderful “Like Sunday, Like Rain,” an intelligent and highly compelling coming of age tale written and directed by Frank Whaley, an actor turned independent filmmaker.

Eleanor (Leighton Meester ) is a bright but struggling 23-year-old living in New York City whose messy breakup from a mercurial rock star boyfriend (Billie Joe Armstrong, a real rock star making his tentative movie debut) causes her to lose her job and move out on her own. She lands on her feet thanks to a desperate temp agent who sends her to the posh Upper West side to work as a live-in nanny for a gifted and rich 12-year-old cello player named Reggie (bulbous-nosed Julian Shatkin, very impressive in his first film).

After the boy’s frazzled mother (Debra Messing) leaves for the summer, Eleanor is left in charge of Reggie and much of the film involves the two characters spending time together and talking. A few daily activities—long walks in the park, visits to museums, lunches in restaurants—establish a pattern that lets the acquaintance blossom into a close friendship.

During one of their talks, Eleanor reveals that she used to play the cornet, a musical connection that sets the stage for a lovely final sequence in which Whaley crosscuts between shots of the characters each playing their instrument. Ed Harcourt, an English songwriter, is credited with the film’s soundtrack, an elliptical blend of dreaminess and melancholy that seems to capture the confusion, anxiety and longing of the characters.

Of course, for Reggie, a polysyllabic whiz kid with few friends who’s never been in love, the friendship begins to feel like something more. Suddenly, he’ll do just about anything to spend more time with Eleanor, even slyly and comically worming his way out of a trip to summer camp. As his unrequited fascination with the beautiful, older stranger turns urgent and his gazes into her brown eyes grow deeper, “Like Sunday, Like Rain” becomes a sensitive and exquisite chronicle of an adolescent’s ephemeral first crush.

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