"Raining Stones" is a gritty slice-of-life dramady about a working class family man who has to persevere through difficult financial times to save enough money for his daughter's first communion. An excellent little film by all accounts, this flick builds great depth in its characters making empathy so easy you'll likely speak with a brogue by film's end. In typical Loach fashion, "Raining Stones" works hard fleshing out its characters in fine detail and realistic fashion rather than going for easy, expansive sensationalism. A good human drama with a sense of humor which will most likely be appreciated by more mature audiences. (B)

Note: The DVD I watched had no subtitles or CC and the accents were so thick much of the dialogue was difficult to understand.

Raining Stones (1993) is an English film directed by Ken Loach. In this movie, director Loach hammers home his frequent message--workers who can't find work are driven to more and more desperate actions.

Bruce Jones plays Bob, a loving husband and father. Julie Brown portrays his wife, Anne. Bob and Julie are just barely managing to get along, but, as the title suggests, they gradually get pushed to the point when they just don't have enough money for a key purchase.

This purchase is an expensive communion outfit for their daughter. Their parish priest suggests a gown donated to the church, but they are too proud to accept this. They may have problems, but they will have a new dress for the young girl's first communion.

As the plot continues things get worse. The ending of the film was a surprise to me. I didn't see it going that way, and it didn't seem typical for Loach. However, I believe it works.

We saw this film on the small screen, which was OK. Raining Stones has a strong IMDb rating of 7.4. I think it's even better than that.

P.S. On the case of the DVD, Roger Ebert is quoted as saying. "The funniest of Ken Loach's films about working-class life in modern Britain." I don't know what film Ebert saw, but it couldn't have been the one I saw. Raining Stones is an excellent movie, but it's not funny.

Hi really enjoyed it - i could appreciate the issues highlighted - and loved the comic element "heads down arses out" lol.. however I am not sure about the priest's advice.. would this happen in reality? I would have imagined that a catholic priest would have advised him to go to the police... or is he seeing the police as being part of the flawed society in which they live? But in fairness, he was the cause of the guy to crash into the pillar (having smashed the window screen in etc)

I dunno - I would like to think that Ken is being realistic and fair but I think that there is a bias here..

In any event I really enjoyed it... gee I felt so much for the daughter - but in fairness she seemed tough too - (hands on hips when the loan shark was in the house)