Rose is a neurodivergent middle schooler, obsessed with homonyms and following the rules, who lives in a small rural town with her troubled single dad (Jeremy Sisto). Rose struggles to make friends at school, so when he brings home a lost dog one rainy night, she soon becomes entirely devoted and names her Rain (like the weather, or like a queen, or like what you’d put on a horse). When Rain goes missing in a landmark storm, Rose sets out with her uncle (Paul Rudd) on a search to find her. 

In her adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s bestselling novel of the same name, director Erika Burke Rossa brings us a film filled to the brim with heart, showing equal parts of the sweetness of loving a family dog and the hard reality of being a single parent of a neurodivergent child. The young Felice Kakaletris shines in her first major film performance and is certainly not overshadowed by the starpower of her scene partners, Jeremy Sisto and Paul Rudd in their first film together since Clueless. Rain Reign tells the story of a dysfunctional but loving family challenged by crisis, but ultimately strengthened by Rose’s determination to always do the right thing, no matter what.—Camille Ramos