Rain Man

Tom Cruise stars as a used car salesman, who is angry when his father's inheritance is left to his older autistic brother (Dustin Hoffman), whose existence had not been revealed to him.

The film is built around its two assured central performances. Hoffman gives an excellent portrayal of a man with autism, totally unable to comprehend the real world around him. Cruise is no less impressive. While he is essentially playing to type, his character's attitude changes so gradually throughout the film that you barely notice, and without Cruise's subtle performance this transformation would be much less credible.

This is a highly commendable film, which, despite tackling a tricky subject, refuses to succumb to sentimentality. In giving autism such publicity, the film has hopefully helped to lessen the stigma brought on by ignorance of this condition.

Rain Man's great success is that it shows the way forward for issue driven movies in Hollywood. Its success at the box office demonstrates that taking a risk can pay off in spades, provided that the film is good enough.

It is something of a great cinematic achievement that Rain Man became the great film it clearly is because the story surrounding it is interestingly Hollywood in itself.

Four directors, six screenwriters, two cinematographers, eight producers, writers strikes, crew change, and a studio fighting for its life.

All of the above are common knowledge but it doesn't hurt to remember these facts when viewing the award wining triumph of a movie that stands the test of time today. The film is so simple in structure it really needed something special to pull it out of the prospective banality of being "just another road movie about finding oneself", Rain Man achieves something special by tackling its subjects with very sensitive hands and splicing a believable human concept into the story via the incredible shows from its two leading men.

Dustin Hoffman gives a magical moving performance as the Autistic Savant Raymond, the ultimate complement I can pay the performance is that it really is believable, both moving and clever rolled into one artistic result. Tom Cruise is equally as great in a role that called for drastic layer changes, a role that demanded much conviction from the actor taking it on, and Cruise gives the role much depth as he goes from shallow bastard to a very emotive and feeling human being, it's a great show that stands up to reevaluation these days. A performance that seems to have sadly been forgotten in light of Hoffman's film stealing show. With a film such as this you pray that the ending can do it justice, and I'm glad to say that there is no pandering here, it's an ending that says so much because it doesn't cop out, I thank god for those rewrites because the endings to the original scripts would of had me booting the TV set out of the window.

Essential cinema. 10/10

It's not very difficult to see why this movie won four Oscars and was nominated for four more. The academy loves movies about people with difficult lives or with a handicap. Sometimes it almost feels like they are desperate to show that they too have a heart and so a director who hasn't won anything so far just has to make a movie with such a subject and he can be sure that he will hit the jackpot. Does that also mean that those movies are always excellent? No, although I wish they were. But it has to be said, not all of those movies are bad either, take for instance this "Rain Man". That's certainly a movie that deserves a closer watch.

When the selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt hears that his father has left behind a fortune after his death, but that he won't get it, he is furious. He has never had a good relationship with his father, who threw him out as a teenager, but he sure hoped for more than a now antique convertible. And to make things worse for Charlie, he hears that all the money goes to Raymond, an autistic man who he has never seen before in his life, but who appears to be his brother. And if that shock isn't yet big enough, the man also appears to be able to calculate complicated mathematical problems in his head with great speed and accuracy, but doesn't even understand what money can be used for. Enraged by all this 'injustice', Charlie kidnaps Raymond from his residential home, but then finds out how difficult it is to live with a man who only can live with his fixed routines...

This wouldn't have been a typical eighties movie if there hadn't been a selfish yuppie in it of course, but I must say that it didn't bother me this time. The main reason for that is because it accentuates the contrast between the two men even more. Charlie has nothing else but money on his mind, while Raymond doesn't even know what money is. That's without any doubt a very smart idea which makes this movie work. And that's not the only good thing about this movie. The acting for instance is also very good. Especially Dustin Hoffman is excellent, but that has of course much to do with the role that he is playing. Still, his performance is very believable and remarkable. And even though I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, I must say that he was really very good in this movie. The role he was playing seemed to be written for him.

All in all this is a very good movie that sure deserves to be seen. The acting and the story are far above average and give a good idea of what it must be like to live with an autistic person. I'm convinced that this movie certainly doesn't deserve a rating lower than 7.5/10.

I was thinking of the way different movies seem to be good. Some have lots of action, others a bunch of special-effects. But then it strikes you, that what represents real depth, real quality is when a movie can be good without those features. When it's the dialogue, the story and the acting that strikes you. This film has really only two characters, all others play only minor roles (Cruise's girlfriend has some importance though). Two characters basically, and one dialogue - that's all you need when you've got a script as good as this, and two such great actors. Only that is brilliant. But this film also has such fine, very true episodes, small stories in the larger film. One example is when Ray watches court TV with the working class woman and her many children out in the countryside...it's such a fine picture, just outstanding. ALL IN ALL A GREAT FILM!

I finally got to watch this movie. It really was on my radar for a very very long time. The movie's story is not unconventional by any means, but thanks to Levinson's smart direction, Ronald Bass' powerful script that adds a lot of fresh details, and the terrific performances from the leads, Rain Man feels very original. In fact, I can even see how the ending would be from the beginning, but that didn't make the slightest issue for me.

Barry Levinson presented the movie in a way that manages to generate emotion in their audience without ever feeling melodramatic. That's because Levinson avoided many clichés, the most important one of them is the typical way of storytelling. Instead of making a movie that relies on drama, he made road-trip movie that produces a catharsis of emotions more than you would ever imagine.

As a matter of fact, the movie feels as if it has a character-driven story, except it's actually not. And the result is a movie that has a very restricted and bound plot, but it never feels that way. While watching the movie, I felt that I can't expect anything. I felt as if I was watching a movie with a picaresque tale, but it's actually far from being that. Unlike Wag the Dog, Rain Man has a lot of memorable moments that will stay with you forever. In other words, Barry Levinson made Rain Man feels more cinematic than Wag the Dog. But I'll say it again, the movie never feels overly sentimental.

Dustin Hoffman gave one of the Best Performances in his career, but I really can't say if he had deserved the Oscar more than Tom Hanks in Big or not. Tom Cruise's performance is really what stands out in my opinion. I think he gave one of, if not his best performance ever. I don't want to spoil anything for who haven't watched this wonderful film yet, but there are a lot of scenes that show Cruise's acting abilities, and prove that he is underappreciated as an actor who really can deliver some exceptional dramatic performances, not just doing incredible stunts and running. I think he deserved to be nominated for an Oscar at the least.

That being said, I have some issues with Rain Man. The first one is that the beginning was a bit rushed and very fast-paced for its own good. Specially because the drama kicks off very early, and the movie should have taken its time to represent it.

The entire message of the movie has been literally revealed near the end by Tom Cruise, so that's an obvious, and a bit annoying problem.

Also, the ending could have been a little bit shorter. However, the last 15-20 minutes has some of the smartest, and most powerful dialogue ever written. And it also has the most intense and moving moments in the movie.

The moments that show Raymond math prowess were very hilarious and funny at the beginning, then they became kinda overused, but after that they were taken advantage of very cleverly.

Overall, I loved Rain Man so much, and I really don't know why there are many people who think it didn't deserve the Oscar for Best Picture. It's meticulously written, impressively directed, beautifully shot, superbly acted, engaging, moving, touching, and above all that, it's very enjoyable. Also, Zimmer's score is electrifying!

(8.5/10)