{"id":692115,"date":"2026-06-08T19:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692115\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:21:21","slug":"rain-reign-review-paul-rudd-in-a-gentle-family-oriented-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/692115\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rain Reign’ Review: Paul Rudd in a Gentle, Family-Oriented Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRose, the 12-year-old protagonist of \u201cRain Reign<\/a>,\u201d is obsessed with homonyms \u2014 words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning \u2014 and the title duly refers to the name she gives to her suitably regal-looking golden retriever. There are no hidden layers of meaning, however, in Erika Burke\u00a0Rossa\u2019s straightforward, sweet-natured family film. A simple story of a young misfit making her way through a world she doesn\u2019t understand, it imparts pleasingly mature lessons in resilience, selflessness and tolerance without much in the way of coding or disguise. Low-key and likable, this modest adaptation of Ann M. Martin\u2019s 2014 children\u2019s book will appeal to patient, sensitive kids and their parents, but may be a bit muted for others.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Paul Rudd<\/a> takes first billing \u2014 and is on characteristically amiable form as a kindly uncle \u2014 relative newcomer Felice Kakaletris is clearly the star of the film, as the highly intelligent, neurodivergent Rose. Solemn and earnestly empathetic, her performance persuasively anchors \u201cRain Reign\u201d in the character\u2019s naive but rigidly rational, strongly principled worldview. (Enough so, in fact, that the writing of her running voiceover can sometimes feel a bit pat.) Rudd\u2019s involvement, meanwhile, may raise the profile of this Tribeca premiere sufficiently to net it some theatrical exposure, though it should feel quite at home on the small screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor as long as Rose can recall, she\u2019s been raised solo by her blue-collar dad Wes (Jeremy Sisto) in their rundown rural cottage in upstate New York; she may not have first-hand memories of her mother, whom her father says left when she was an infant, but she idealizes her just the same. Wes, meanwhile, is loving but not entirely up to the demands of parenting \u2014 least of all when he drinks, which is often. As a result, Rose has got pretty good at looking after herself, though she\u2019s prone to anxious episodes, particularly at school, where some teachers and students understand her better than others.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegular checkins from Wes\u2019 gentler, generally more together brother Waylon (Rudd) are a stabilizing influence, though tensions endure between the two \u2014 unresolved from a tough childhood spent in a variety of foster homes, a backstory that Burke Rossa\u2019s script parcels out in small doses, mostly restricted to terms understood by our young heroine. However, it\u2019s the adoption of the aforementioned pooch, found one night by Wes in a downpour, that proves the most stabilizing influence on the immediately besotted and conscientiously caring Rose: It\u2019s not long before Rain becomes the definition of an emotional support animal to her.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo when the dog is lost in a severe storm that devastates the region and leaves many homeless, an overwhelmed Rose must balance the urgency of her search mission alongside the misfortune of others close to her. That\u2019s one of a few fairly serious, character-building moral and emotional challenges that the film hands its lead: \u201cRain Reign\u201d may be be light on major narrative incident by the standards of much children\u2019s entertainment, but you couldn\u2019t accuse it of being small-stakes. Rose\u2019s relationship with her father, too, is unusual in its unresolved jaggedness, while Sisto\u2019s gruffly on-edge performance points to a deeper well of adult pain in Wes that his daughter cannot yet manage or comprehend.<\/p>\n

\n\tSomewhat ironically, it\u2019s Rudd\u2019s warm movie-star presence that steers the film closest to afterschool-special territory. Rather like Gretchen Mol in a small, sunny role as a nurturing animal-shelter manager, his Waylon throws a lifeline of adult benevolence to a girl otherwise accustomed to adults letting her down; he doesn\u2019t have a whole lot of inner life, but there\u2019s a limit to how much grown-up woe this tender-hearted child\u2019s-eye tale needs. You\u2019re left thinking that if you can\u2019t get your lonely, vulnerable child a cuddly dog to watch over them, Paul Rudd might be the next best thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rose, the 12-year-old protagonist of \u201cRain Reign,\u201d is obsessed with homonyms \u2014 words that sound alike but differ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,300219,206,85073,300220,129281],"class_list":["post-692115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-erika-burke-rossa","tag-movies","tag-paul-rudd","tag-rain-reign","tag-tribeca-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}