Rain

by Kam Williams

Cleo Virginia “VC” Andrews (1923-1986) is a best-selling novelist known for sweeping, intergenerational sagas revolving around shocking family revelations. Her first eight books were so successful, that after her demise her estate hired a prolific ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman, to continue publishing under her name, and he has gone on to pen far more than Ms. Andrews herself.

Rain, based on the first installment of what is known as the Hudson series, is about an orphan (Brooklyn Sudano) who was raised in the ‘hood by a woman (Khandi Alexander) she erroneously presumed to be her mother. Truth be told, the gifted child prodigy was really the product of a taboo liaison between a rich, white debutante (LeeAnn Locken) and an unidentified black boy from the other side of the tracks.

As the movie opens, the now 19 year-old beauty has little hope of blossoming, because her ailing adoptive mother doesn’t have either the money or the wherewithal to make her music career happen. Plus, she already has her hands full with a couple of her own biological kids, Beni (Jerrika Hinton) and Roy (Julius Washington).

Everything finally changes for Rain the day the Hudson family matriarch, Isabel (Faye Dunaway), learns of her long-lost granddaughter’s existence. She dispatches a driver straight away to bring the promising teen to the mansion, and Rain’s po’ days are ovah! Granny immediately pulls some strings and enrolls her long-lost heir at a prestigious conservatory.

Rain is a formulaic soap opera that trades in too many stereotypes to be taken seriously. The sappy storyline is likely to resonate only with fans of romance novels, though men might enjoy the multi-faceted performance of Brooklyn Sudano, even though she is terribly miscast in the title role as a supposedly streetwise sister.

Nonetheless, Brooklyn, who in real life is diva Donna Summer’s daughter, does earn high marks for her overall charm, diction, magnetism, and singing ability, proving the old maxim that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Good (2 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 104 minutes

Studio: CodeBlack/Visual Entertainment