Review of IMDb Top 250 Films - Rain Man (1988)

I intend to conduct a review of the top 250 films on the IMDb database. At a rate of two per month this will still take forever as the list constantly changes. I don't claim to be a very knowledgeable or intellectual film critic but have tremendous confidence in my ability to discern good direction, script and acting, and to expose films which have enjoyed / endured an undeserved reputation in my perhaps arrogant opinion. There may be a few minor spoilers in my reviews.

Rain Man - Rating: 4 out of 6

This film is a one-trick-pony about a man (Charlie Babbitt played by Tom Cruise) getting to know his autistic savant brother (Raymond Babbitt played by Dustin Hoffman); but it is to the cast and crew's credit that this very 1980s film surpasses the majority of such films of that decade (I'm thinking of the superficially similar Crocodile Dundee for instance which was immensely popular at the time but is actually very shallow and quite dire!)

It lacks pace, but given the subject matter could it really have done more to rid itself of the, at times, claustrophobic quality / lack of breeziness or joie de vivre? Probably not, but because of that it is no Tootsie (with which it compares unfavourably). Yet it makes up for it with some great acting (Cruise as much as Hoffmann, and I am no big fan of the former) which kept the viewer wanting more, and scenes which, although often showing rather stereotypical funny situations Raymond would end up in, were stylishly executed (again as opposed to Crocodile Dundee, which catered perhaps to a slightly less discerning audience). Once can sense the appeal that the funny sex-mimicing and 'airline crash' scenes ("Qantas has never crashed") would have had to the cinema-going audience.

This is not essential cinema by any means but, unlike many of the films I have been reviewing, this one stays consistently good, indeed perhaps improving towards the end, with some enjoyable scenes, notably in Las Vegas (the hooker, the dancing and the nice touch with the Wheel of Fortune when Raymond shows he is not infallible), the temporary role-reversal when Charlie learns the truth about the 'Rain Man', and when the two brothers make a semi-connection. The penultimate scene is just excellent courtesy of director Barry Levinson himself playing the psychiatrist, and I have just read on IMDb that "he adlibbed repeatedly to push Cruise's buttons"! Certainly as I was watching it I queried whether he was a professional actor so natural was his performance! The ending, of which that scene constitutes the start, is stylish and brave.

As with the rest of the cast, Valeria Golino is excellent (I just love her voice). The fact that they got rid of her for the middle of the film so that Raymond and Charlie could have their time together is an amusing and obvious contrivance. She brings a much-needed and very natural female presence into the film and her early scenes with Cruise are very well-done - notably in the car when she is chastising him for his silence.

I haven't given this film a higher rating because it never reaches excellence in any part (I cannot see Tom Cruise ever starring in a jaw-droppingly good film) and, although the lack of joie de vivre etc is not necessarily anybody's fault, the saving graces of artistic intelligence and courage / experimentation which would have compensated for it are almost by definition not to be found in a film intended to cater to a mass audience. This is good though and should be seen.