Whaley has made a provocative, well-acted movie about infatuations that turn awkward, but he struggles with the ending.

Whaley aims high for this sort of material, but his film, sweet as it is, gets a little too precocious.

Whaley nicely calibrates this wistful dramedy's emotional quotient, never allowing sentiment to turn into sap. He also smartly dials down Reggie's initial precociousness to reveal a kid who's deep, resourceful and strangely sensible.

Like Sunday, Like Rain avoids both sentimentality and melodrama, though some might feel that it does so at the expense of story.