Rain Man

1988’s Rain Man has aged rather strangely. With more knowledge about mental health flooding out into the mainstream and Dr. Phil and his cronies spreading more information than ever about various mental illnesses, the connotations of Rain Man take on new significance in 2008. Watching it last night, my wife and I went from periods of enragement to periods of poignant resolve in mere minutes as Barry Levinson’s dramedy played out.

Of course, Rain Man stars Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbitt, a slickster yuppie doofus from Los Angeles. Charlie is in the middle of some negotiations over some luxury cars when he gets a phone call that his father has passed away. Being estranged from his father for several years, Charlie is understandably unaffected by the call and drives with his girlfriend (Valeria Golino) to hear the reading of the will after the funeral. Upon hearing the will, Charlie discovers that the $3-million worth of his father’s is going to a beneficiary and not to him.

Charlie heads off to discover who the beneficiary is and meets his brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) in a mental institution. Raymond is autistic or as they call it in the movie “autistic savant.” This means that Raymond has superior recall abilities, but doesn’t understand the subject matter. Charlie is stunned by this and decides to take Raymond out of the mental institution to head back to Los Angeles to meet with his attorneys. The subsequent road trip involves the typical life-changing events that transform Charlie into a more sensitive and loving human being.

The centerpiece to the film is not Hoffman’s Raymond. It is Charlie, who requires the change to put his life in gear. His relationship with his girlfriend is floundering under the stress of Charlie’s self-imposed lifestyle and his overall attitude on life leaves a lot to be desired. When we meet Charlie, he is essentially a jerk. He doesn’t understand Raymond’s needs and simply acts selfishly, pulling and poking Raymond into areas he shouldn’t be heading to. This enraging process gets to be quite uncomfortable at times, as Charlie’s abuse of Raymond reaches several maddening instances. Levinson’s use of long shots and long takes draws this out even more.

One interesting thing about Rain Man is how the film moves. Levinson uses long takes extensively, drawing out scenes beyond normative points. Whether this was for emphasis or environment building is not clear, as much of the film now seems like it could have used a more liberal editing process. Some long cuts of driving scenes or long external shots seem out of place in the film’s relatively internal feel, forcing us between emotive drama and comic road movie with rather uncomfortable strokes.

The performances are clearly the highlight here. Hoffman’s portrayal of Raymond is loving and tender, giving depth and simplicity to the character. He could have simply overplayed the mental illness aspect of Raymond, as many other actors would have done. Instead, Hoffman gives the character a compassionate portrayal and works him alongside Cruise’s Charlie with all of the natural ability of the most seasoned professional actors. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Hoffman snagged the Oscar.

Tom Cruise is actually playing the more complex character. His character displays the perfect combination of assholishness and heart within the first few frames. Charlie obviously cares, but how much? The depth of Charlie as the centerpiece of the picture is a risk, but I think Cruise deals with the responsibility nicely and turns in one of the best performances of his career. He’s always at his best when he gets to play the jerk in the movie and audiences always love it when Cruise’s asshole finds redemption of some kind. Rain Man is the archetypal Tommy C. character movie.

Overall, Rain Man wears a little thin towards the finale and some of the events feel tacked on. While fun, there really was no purpose for the casino portion and some of the other bits could have also met with the cutting room floor. I think a more succinct approach would have served the film better and might have eased some of the pressure off of Barry Levinson’s heavy directorial hand. Nevertheless, Rain Man is an affecting film and is well worth a look.

Trailer: