Rain

It is difficult to like these people. The adults are bored with each other and/or attracted in a purely sexual way. They drink, flirt, have rows and eat horrible food. Family life seems arid. The children, 13-year-old Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and her little brother Jim (Aaron Murphy), are left to their own devises, as if unattached from the emotional core.

This is an area of lower middle-class New Zealand existence that is not weird, or interesting enough for Jane Campion (Sweetie). The characters are empty of expectation, except for Janey, who has years of wreckage ahead. Her mother Kate (Sarah Peirse) drifts between despair and lust, exacerbated by alcohol and bitterness. Her husband's friend Cady (Marton Csokas) takes photographs, appears to live on a boat and is so passive he allows women to seduce him.

The holiday bungalow, where they stay, is hideous and depressing. Janey's dad (Alistair Browning) is a weak man, who knows that his marriage is floundering, but can't think of anything that might save it. He is unimaginative as well as victimised by a situation that drags him down.

Cady shows off his hairy chest and the girls swarm - that's Kate and Janey. Jim plays by himself. He doesn't know about love. He tries to have fun.

The acting by the over-25s lacks spark, with Csokas particularly unconnected. The electricity between him and Peirse has been cut off at source, which leaves Browning, who is best left. Fulford-Wierzbicki and Murphy steal the film, which is not a crime, because if they hadn't, it would have collapsed.

You might call this a rites-of-passage, except there's nothing at the end, no message of hope, nor intimation of enlightenment. Only, the long drive home.

Sadness is contagious. Be warned.