Rose, the 12-year-old protagonist of “Rain Reign,” is obsessed with homonyms — words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning — and the title duly refers to the name she gives to her suitably regal-looking golden retriever. There are no hidden layers of meaning, however, in Erika Burke Rossa’s straightforward, sweet-natured family film. A simple story of a young misfit making her way through a world she doesn’t understand, it imparts pleasingly mature lessons in resilience, selflessness and tolerance without much in the way of coding or disguise. Low-key and likable, this modest adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s 2014 children’s book will appeal to patient, sensitive kids and their parents, but may be a bit muted for others.
Though Paul Rudd takes first billing — and is on characteristically amiable form as a kindly uncle — relative newcomer Felice Kakaletris is clearly the star of the film, as the highly intelligent, neurodivergent Rose. Solemn and earnestly empathetic, her performance persuasively anchors “Rain Reign” in the character’s naive but rigidly rational, strongly principled worldview. (Enough so, in fact, that the writing of her running voiceover can sometimes feel a bit pat.) Rudd’s involvement, meanwhile, may raise the profile of this Tribeca premiere sufficiently to net it some theatrical exposure, though it should feel quite at home on the small screen.
For as long as Rose can recall, she’s been raised solo by her blue-collar dad Wes (Jeremy Sisto) in their rundown rural cottage in upstate New York; she may not have first-hand memories of her mother, whom her father says left when she was an infant, but she idealizes her just the same. Wes, meanwhile, is loving but not entirely up to the demands of parenting — least of all when he drinks, which is often. As a result, Rose has got pretty good at looking after herself, though she’s prone to anxious episodes, particularly at school, where some teachers and students understand her better than others.
Regular checkins from Wes’ gentler, generally more together brother Waylon (Rudd) are a stabilizing influence, though tensions endure between the two — unresolved from a tough childhood spent in a variety of foster homes, a backstory that Burke Rossa’s script parcels out in small doses, mostly restricted to terms understood by our young heroine. However, it’s the adoption of the aforementioned pooch, found one night by Wes in a downpour, that proves the most stabilizing influence on the immediately besotted and conscientiously caring Rose: It’s not long before Rain becomes the definition of an emotional support animal to her.
So when the dog is lost in a severe storm that devastates the region and leaves many homeless, an overwhelmed Rose must balance the urgency of her search mission alongside the misfortune of others close to her. That’s one of a few fairly serious, character-building moral and emotional challenges that the film hands its lead: “Rain Reign” may be be light on major narrative incident by the standards of much children’s entertainment, but you couldn’t accuse it of being small-stakes. Rose’s relationship with her father, too, is unusual in its unresolved jaggedness, while Sisto’s gruffly on-edge performance points to a deeper well of adult pain in Wes that his daughter cannot yet manage or comprehend.
Somewhat ironically, it’s Rudd’s warm movie-star presence that steers the film closest to afterschool-special territory. Rather like Gretchen Mol in a small, sunny role as a nurturing animal-shelter manager, his Waylon throws a lifeline of adult benevolence to a girl otherwise accustomed to adults letting her down; he doesn’t have a whole lot of inner life, but there’s a limit to how much grown-up woe this tender-hearted child’s-eye tale needs. You’re left thinking that if you can’t get your lonely, vulnerable child a cuddly dog to watch over them, Paul Rudd might be the next best thing.
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