| What makes this project so original are the uncanny direction by Barry Livinson, and the great performance by Dustin Hoffman. At the beginning of the film we see the typical Tom Cruise (Charlie Babbit) character, always the arrogant big shot, carrying on at his business (selling imported automobiles). When his work is done, he and his girlfriend set off to go on vacation. In the middle of a hot argument between the two of them, he gets a call on his highly expensive speakerphone telling him that his father has died. This news is not a huge devastation to Charlie because he and his father were never close. The only thing that matters to him at this moment is his father's will, and where the money will be going. He soon finds out that he will receive his dad's mint condition 1949 Buick Road Master, but that's about all he will receive. The rest of the money will go into a trust fund. As he narrows the location of the trust down to an institution, he learns that the trust is going there because of his autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), who has been in the institution long enough for Charlie not to know he even has a brother. At this point in the story, out of feisty anger of not getting his father's money, Charlie Babbit decides to take his brother on a long trip to California. At this point in the movie, the pace and interest of what we are seeing highly increases. Once Hoffman is introduced in the film, we are entranced by his realistic portrayal of an autistic man A person who has autism is extremely smart in one area and totally incommunicable in others. Raymond's area of expertise is math and memorization. He can calculate the product of two five-digit numbers in less than two seconds in his head. He can memorize the progress of a card game, and can recall which cards have been played against which cards are being held (Which Charlie Babbit used as an opportunity to make some cash at one point). His area of helplessness is his inability to intelligently carry on a conversation with a person, which drives Charlie Babbit up the wall a few times. Another unusual thing about Raymond is his schedule. He has to do the same thing at the same time of the day every day. Every day, he has an allotted time to watch Jeopardy, go to sleep, eat, etc. If he doesn't do these things at the times he is used to, he will become extremely upset, and start going berserk, so Cruise always tried his best to accommodate Raymond's needs. Dustin Hoffman captures the mind, attitude, movement, and even voice inflections of an autistic man with wonderful execution. A brilliant way that Barry Livinson, the director, plays out the autism symptoms is by exaggerating the incident as it may appear to Raymond by having the sounds become extra loud, and the camera jerk around and zoom in on the thing that was causing Raymond trouble, like something as little as a fake fire alarm or bath water. This made us experience life like Raymond did, and let us know what he is going through. Near the end, Tom Cruise comes to love his brother. Throughout the entirety of the film, Cruise has a constantly expanding patience for his brother. This writer could also see Tom's character starting to love human kind, and people more than money, his job, or the possessions that he has. We have seen the Ebenenezer Scrooge transformation many times before in films like this, but never has there been a film with such a great understanding of an autistic person and such directorial sensitivity to a project such as this. With Hoffman's excellent performance, it is easy to understand why Cruise's character likes Raymond so much. This movie stays with you quite a while after it's over, and keeps your attention throughout. The film contains rough language, but I saw it on television, which edited a lot of the words out. This would have probably been given a PG rating if had gone into theaters the way I saw it on the cable channel, USA. I highly recommend this film and give it my highest rating, four stars. |
| Rain Man |
| **** stars |
| USA, 1988 MPAA classification: R (Profanity, brief nudity, mature themes) Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Jerry Molen, Jack Murdock, Michael D. Roberts, Ralph Seymour, Lucinda Jenney, Bonnie Hunt Director: Barry Livinson Producer: Mark Johnson Screenplay: Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow Cinematography: John Seale Music: Hans Zimmer US Distributer: United Artists |