Rain Man (1988)

 Rain Man (1988)


Rain Man is a beautiful film about love and acceptance. The winner of the Best Motion Picture Academy Award, the movie is a must see. Not only does it properly spread awareness on the effects of autism, but it is also an entertaining flick with fantastic performances from Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. This is one of those films that will make you laugh and will make you angry and sad. Over the course of two hours, you see a character transformation take place. A typical result for this kind of adventure, but it is told in such a heartwarming, meaningful way. No matter who anyone is, love always exists even if it takes time to find this love. The film is not only known for its fantastic acting, but Barry Levinson’s competent direction and a lovely score from early-career Hans Zimmer (actually one of this best in a whole factory line of fantastic scores) give this movie the boost it needed to become one of the most popular (and one of my personal favorites) of 1988.

You know, Barry Levinson was not the first choice to direct the movie. Martin Brest, Steven Spielberg, and Sydney Pollack were originally attached, but they moved on to other projects. So, the man behind the great Good Morning, Vietnam is behind the camera. It was a great choice because he is an extremely competent director. This film could have easily been a cookie-cutter movie that we have seen many times before. In a sense it is, but Levinson took the familiarity and made it his own. The script, written by Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow, is a heartwarming script that plays into Levinson’s skill as a director. The final act had some script issues because of the 1988 Writer’s Guild Strike, but Morrow did enough rough drafts to make everything work. I really liked how they did not play up autism and find this “miracle cure.” They used this disease in an authentic setting as much as possible. They might have taken liberty with the idea that autistic people are savants, but this is a Hollywood film after all. Awareness was spread about the disease and the misconceptions of autistic people. Finally, the script manages to be very funny. My favorite line is Dustin Hoffman claiming that “K-Mart sucks.” Ha, they knew the facts in 1988!

Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is a hotheaded, narcissistic human who is adept at using people for his own advantage. His father even kicked him out of the house. Years later, his father passed away leaving him a fancy 1949 convertible and…a brother? Yes, Charlie had a brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) that he was unaware of. Charlie is angry that his father’s fortune was given to Raymond, who is also autistic. Raymond is high-end functional. In other words, he can communicate with others, do extremely complicated math problems in his head within seconds, stays on a very proper schedule (and gets upset if anything slightly deviates from this schedule). Charlie takes him away from the institution so they can live together in California. With Raymond fearful of airplanes, they have no choice but to take a road trip. Charlie just might somehow understand his brother through their shared experiences.

Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for his portrayal and rightfully so. As evident in films like Midnight Cowboy and Tootsie, Hoffman is at his best when taking on very risky roles. If I did not know any better, I would have thought that he truly was autistic. His character gave me a deeper understanding of this disease and how it can affect others in many different ways. Hoffman received lots of love, but seemingly Cruise is underrated here when he is the emotional anchor of the movie. Almost in real-time, we see quite a character transformation and he does it very well. Also, should have been nominated. Regardless, both performances elevate the movie into the stratosphere. They definitely had fun together playing cards in Vegas, too!

Overall, Rain Man is a beautiful movie in more ways than one. It is about finding brotherly love in the most unexpected places. That is the beauty of life. I find it funny how this movie affected inflight entertainment. The film was edited for most airlines (due to the recitation of deadly statistics) except for the Australian airline, Qantas. Levinson was not happy because this was a major plot point that made the road trip occur in the first place. Anyhow, Rain Man was the highest grossing film of 1988. It deserves to be seen because of its important story/message and the trio of Levinson, Hoffman, and Cruise at their best. And Hans Zimmer fantastic score!

My Grade: A

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