Rain Man (1988)
Directed by Barry Levinson

Film Review

An appealing conflation of road movie and buddy movie, Rain Man transcends the cosy banality of its subject matter and delivers something far more substantial, through a winning combination of intelligent screenwriting and sensitive performances from it two lead actors.  Using his knowledge of a real-life autistic savant (Kim Peek) as a starting point, writer Barry Morrow crafts a modern fable about tolerance and brotherly love that is witty, engaging and exquisitely poignant, without so much as a whiff of forced sentimentality.  Not only did this low-key, unpretentious film prove to be a major box office hit (it grossed over 170 million dollars worldwide, making it the most commercially successful film of 1988), it was generally well-received by the critics and garnered no fewer than eight Oscar nominations in 1989, winning in four categories - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hoffman) and Best Original Screenplay.

Dustin Hoffman may have taken the Best Actor Oscar, for his harrowingly true to life portrayal of a man afflicted with a severe form of autism, but it is Tom Cruise who turns in the more remarkable performance, one that both plays on and subverts the actor's unhealthily close association with self-loving yuppie-type roles.  Thanks to an almost flawless script and plenty of back-up from director Barry Levinson, Cruise is given a golden opportunity to prove himself as a serious film actor, and he grasps it with both hands, turning in the finest performance of his career whilst making Rain Man one of the most memorable character-based American films of the decade.  Starting out as the archetypal selfish jerk (the kind of role he was best suited for in his early years but struggled to out-grow), Cruise wastes no time alienating himself from his audience, but by the end of the film it is hard not to love him.  Charlie Babbitt's dramatic inner transformation is so subtly and skilfully rendered that you are genuinely taken by surprise when you begin to warm to the character.  The scenes in which the two mismatched brothers finally manage to connect are all the more powerful for being underwritten and underplayed - it is like watching some poor wretch struggling to find a way to express a burning, pent-up emotion.  The chalk-and-cheese pairing of Hoffman and Cruise could so easily have been a disaster, but it proves to be a stroke of genius, and their work on this film can hardly fail to renew your admiration for both actors.

Autism, in common with many other forms of mental disability, is a subject that cinema has tended to shy away from, which is a shame as it offers considerable scope for revealing the kind of society that we are whilst helping to blow away some of the myths and stigmas associated with the mentally handicapped.  Rain Man is one of the few films to tackle the subject with the seriousness and humanity that it merits.  Yet the film is far more than just a commentary on how we, as individuals and as a society, regard disabled people.  It probes more deeply into what it is that makes us human and shows that it is only through our compassion and willingness to engage with others we can attain maturity and achieve our potential as adult human beings.  Charlie Babbitt's story is not one of a man trying to understand his brother, but rather one of a man who comes to understand himself, and thereby emerge from the shadow of his own autism.  Not all of us are fortunate enough to have a brother like Raymond Babbitt, but we can still take a similar journey, if we choose.

Film Synopsis

Charlie Babbitt, a brash, twenty-something car dealer, sheds no tears when he learns that his estranged father has died, but he is outraged when he discovers that Babbitt Senior has bequeathed his entire three million dollar estate to an unknown beneficiary.  Cancelling his holiday with his girlfriend Susanna, Charlie begins making enquiries and eventually finds out the truth.  His father has left all his money to his autistic older brother Raymond, in a trust fund to be administered by the man who runs the psychiatric hospital where he presently resides.  Charlie's dismay at being disinherited is soon overtaken by the shock of discovering that he has a brother about whom he knows nothing.  In a desperate attempt to force his brother's trustees into giving him his fair share of his inheritance, Charlie abducts Raymond.  His plan is to take his brother back to Los Angeles, where he is willing to fight a legal battle for custody of his disabled sibling if necessary.  Raymond's comprehensive knowledge of airline fatalities  forces Charlie to abandon his plan to fly him back to his hometown; instead, they must undertake an arduous journey of several days by car.  At first, Charlie finds his brother's condition challenging.  Unable to cope with changing and unfamiliar circumstances, Raymond is prone to panic attacks.  Goaded by purely selfish motives, Charlie does everything he can to accommodate his brother's whims but gradually he begins to see him as more than a troublesome oddball.  He vaguely recalls that Raymond was the protective imaginary friend he can remember from his early childhood, the one special friend he called Rain Man...