Review: Rain Man

Tom Cruise plays hotshot car salesman Charlie Babbitt, who has found out some terrible news. His father has died. The terrible news is that his dad left $3 million in a trust fund to his son Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), a brother that Charlie never knew existed until now. Charlie gets his father’s prize rose bushes and the 1949 Buick that was the source of their estrangement many years ago. Incensed and frankly confused, Charlie (who needs cash to keep his seriously struggling business afloat) travels to meet the trustee of the estate, Dr. Bruner (producer Gerry R. Molen) who explains that his older brother Raymond was institutionalised (voluntarily) many years ago for being an autistic savant, that is he’s highly functioning and intelligent but dependent upon strict routine and emotionally unreachable. Affectionate touching for instance, causes great agitation. He also is extremely reluctant to fly and makes a public spectacle of himself, to the annoyance and embarrassment of the rather self-absorbed Charlie, who has a plan up his sleeve: Charlie needs to get back to California for business, so he ‘borrows’ Raymond from the institute in order to blackmail his way into inheriting the $3 million, while he and Raymond take a road trip. A really, really long road trip. Although Raymond by design is likely to never change, brother Charlie manages to warm up to him somewhat and forget about himself for…a couple of seconds at least. Valeria Golino plays Charlie’s compassionate but fed-up girlfriend Susanna, Bonnie Hunt plays a waitress, and Beth Grant (looking about the same age she would some 29 years later) plays a woman whose house the brothers make a pit-stop at.

 

One of the best films of its type, and the beginning of the maturation of Tom Cruise on screen. Although he neither gives the best performance in the film nor of his career, this 1988 Barry Levinson (“Good Morning Vietnam”, “Sleepers”, “Wag the Dog”) winner for Best Picture at the Oscars was definitely a cornerstone for Cruise. He’s absolutely terrific as a job-driven, materialistic guy with deep pain he has shut out for many years. It’s a character with elements similar to the one Cruise earned an Oscar nomination for in the later “Magnolia”, in fact. Both characters have run away from their daddy issues and created somewhat of a new persona for themselves, whilst ignoring the deep, deep issues of their past. Whether or not this is Cruise’s best performance, I will say it’s his best-ever casting. I get the feeling, not knowing Cruise personally, that he may have identified with elements of this character quite a bit. This guy isn’t a particularly likeable man, but he’s relatable or at least you can understand his perspective on some things. He has father issues, feels wronged in his father’s will, and only just now learns he has a special needs brother? That’s a lot to process, arsehole or not anyone can appreciate that.

 

I know why some people don’t like Dustin Hoffman’s Oscar-winning work in this, but I disagree. A lot of people will say that Hoffman (who did quite a bit of study in preparation for the film) shows too much of the ‘process’ in his performance, but after less than 30 minutes, I simply accepted the character of Raymond. Showy or not, it’s a great performance and he works well with Cruise. I’ve known severely autistic people- and people with Asperger’s as well- and elements of Hoffman’s characterisation absolutely do ring true to my limited encounters over the years. I’m far from an expert but the discomfort with intimate touching and to a degree the lack of eye contact and need for a certain routine certainly felt real to me (The ‘savant’ side of things…not so much. That’s a very minor segment of the spectrum if I’m not mistaken and highly exaggerated for the purposes of entertainment). Besides, this isn’t a docudrama and Oscar-winning screenwriters Ron Bass (“Dangerous Minds”, and the thematically similar “Mozart and the Whale”) and Barry Morrow (the popular Mickey Rooney TV movie “Bill”, about a fairly similar subject) both have personal connections to the subject matter as well and based the character on a couple of real-life people. Yes real life autistic people’s capacity for love and emotional displays is more complicated than the film suggests (and we know more about it now than when the film was made), but this film does not need such complexities. It’s not ultimately about autism, it’s about the two characters, two brothers.

 

This is really quite a moving film in terms of the central relationship, and that’s nothing to sneeze at given the limitations of the Raymond character and the not terribly charming character Cruise plays. Meanwhile, it’s a drama but Raymond’s reaction to his brother having sex is one of cinema’s funniest moments ever. Also funny is the scene where Raymond’s need for routine sees them stop by a stranger’s house to watch a particular TV show.

 

I wasn’t terribly enamoured with Valeria Golino’s performance, the score by Hans Zimmer (“Driving Miss Daisy”, “Backdraft”, “Inception”), and the soundtrack. These elements are just enough to stop this one from getting top score from me. It’s a shame Valeria Golino is so annoying and flat as an actress because her character really is important in humanising Cruise’s character. She was a flavour of the month who was frankly never very good. She also emphasises the last word in every sentence to the point where she’s completely monotonous. I have to say that I think the song ‘Iko Iko’ is the devil’s spawn. It’s insanely irritating, and despite earning an Oscar nomination the music score by Zimmer is no help, either. It’s a little too fancy and pretentious for my liking with all the percussion and woodwind instruments. It’s certainly not his finest work. Thankfully the film survives remarkably well in spite of these issues and the length.

 

It’s not a flawless film and is perhaps a bit too long, but this is still a great film with terrific lead performances by Cruise and especially Hoffman. You need to see this if you haven’t already, don’t hold all of the subsequent ‘Oscar bait’ motion pictures against it. Like “Forrest Gump”, this is just really brilliantly done, ‘Oscar bait’ or not.

 

Rating: A