Review of Raining Stones (1993) by Millo T — 05 Aug 2013
Directed by Ken Loach, who after a slump in the 1980's, had returned with a vengeance with Hidden Agenda (1990) and Riff-Raff (1991). He returned with this dark comedy-drama written by Jim Allen, who had worked with Loach on Hidden Agenda and Land and Freedom (1995), it's a film which despite things going wrong for it's protagonist, still has a sense of hope about it.
Bob Williams (Bruce Jones) is on the breadline, and struggling to find work, his schemes with friend Tommy (Ricky Tomlinson) to make money have varying success, and then his van is nicked. All he wants to do is to raise enough money so that his daughter Colleen (Gemma Phoenix) can have a brand new dress for her First Communion.
He tries to keep the news that he literally has no money from his wife Anne (Julie Brown). He tries to get advice from local priest Father Barry (Tom Hickey), who tries to convince Bob to get a second hand dress, which he staunchly refuses to do, he's determined to raise the money to get a brand new dress for his daughter.
It has some brilliant naturalistic performances in it, Jones, who got the role of Les Battersby in Coronation Street because of this film, is brilliant. He's stuck in a quandry, and is determined to get out of it.
The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1993, and it rightfully deserved it too.
This review of Raining Stones (1993) was written by Millo T on 05 Aug 2013.
Raining Stones has generally received very positive reviews.
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