Like Sunday, Like Rain is finally released to US cinemas this week.

The drama premiered internationally in September 2014 at Raindance Film Festival in the United Kingdom. It stars Leighton Meester, Debra Messing, Billie Joe Armstrong and Julian Shatkin. It was shot in 20 days and included filming in all five New York boroughs in the summer of 2013.

The film follows a 12 year old cello prodigy and all around genius Reggie, who is Surrounded by wealth and living with abundant resources in Manhattan. He lives a solitary, bookish life lacking only frequently absent parents and friends. Estranged from family, having slacker boyfriend troubles, and fired from her waitressing job, sometimes musician 23-year-old Eleanor, played by Leighton Meester needs a new place to live and a new job. Fate winds her lovely fingers around these two lives to unexpectedly place the inexperienced Eleanor as the new au pair for a skeptical Reggie and the music in their hearts and souls intertwines to create this beautiful story about discovery and acceptance.

Leighton Meester is perhaps more famous for her role as Blair Waldorf on The CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl, although she has also appeared in the 2010 country drama film Country Strong, the 2011 thriller The Roommate, the 2011 romantic-comedy Monte Carlo, and the comedies The Oranges and That's My Boy in 2012. Meester also went into Broadway in 2014, starring as Curley's wife alongside James Franco and Chris O'Dowd in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. In addition to her acting career, Meester has also ventured into music. She released two singles, recorded songs for various soundtracks and collaborated with several artists, being notably featured on Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad" in 2009. Her musical style has since shifted from pop to folk. In 2012, she embarked on a mini tour with folk band Check in the Dark, whom she had been working with since 2010.

(Leighton Meester)

After her television debut in 1999 playing Alyssa Turner in Law & Order, Meester appeared as a guest in two more series before landing her big role in the movie Hangman's Curse, based on the best-selling book by Frank Peretti. She appeared in Tarzan, which ran for only eight episodes. Meester then started to land guest roles in other series such as Crossing Jordan, 8 Simple Rules, 7th Heaven, Veronica Mars, 24, and Entourage. In 2005, Meester began a regular role in the series Surface as Savannah Bennet. Meester appeared in two more 2006 movies, Flourish and Inside. She also guest appeared in Numb3rs and in two episodes of House M.D. as Ali, a young girl who has a crush on House. She had guest roles on CSI: Miami and Shark, and played the female lead in the horror film Drive-Thru.

In 2007, Meester was cast in the CW's teen drama series Gossip Girl as Blair Waldorf. The show is based on the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar about the lives of New York's privileged Upper East Side young adults. Her performance was the most critically acclaimed of the show, with Blair being cited as the series' breakout character, and also garnering much media recognition due to her wardrobe. She dated Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan.

(Cast of Gossip Girl)

In 2011, she played the role of Rebecca, an obsessive bipolar girl in the thriller The Roommate. Though the film mainly received negative reviews, Meester's portrayal was praised by critics. Entertainment Weekly found she was the only one to bring "the slightest trace of something fascinating to her role" while Los Angeles Times wrote "her performance often has the feeling of a sports car in neutral. When she punches it for quick changes of tone from manic to wounded or around the bend, she shows how much more she is capable of."

(Film: The Roommate)

Meester's second film of the year was the young femme comedy Monte Carlo, loosely based on Jules Bass's young-adult book Headhunters, in which she plays Selena Gomez's sister and Katie Cassidy's friend. Movieline noted that "As in Country Strong, Meester's crack timing and irresistible poignancy illuminate a part that would leave other actresses simpering themselves off the screen." Her last film project of 2011 was the indie dramatic comedy The Oranges opposite Hugh Laurie and Adam Brody, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The San Francisco Chronicle felt that she embodied well her character Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly thought she was "charming", and Newsday called her "radiant".