Rain Man
Academy Award × 4·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
What critics thought
Rain Man lands somewhere between crowd-pleaser and prestige film, with most critics agreeing the two lead performances are the reason to watch while disagreeing sharply on whether the film around them earns its emotional weight. Hoffman's Raymond drew the most debate — some saw a towering technical achievement, others found it showy without dramatic payoff — while Cruise's work as the self-interested Charlie was more consistently admired than the film's marketing suggested it would be.
“a display of sustained virtuosity ... [that] makes no lasting connections with the emotions. Its end effect depends largely on one's susceptibility to the sight of an actor acting nonstop and extremely well, but to no particularly urgent dramatic purpose.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“I felt a certain love for Raymond, the Hoffman character. I don't know quite how Hoffman got me to do it.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“one of the year's most intriguing film premises ... is given uneven, slightly off-target treatment”
Amy Dawes·Variety
“Everything in this movie is fudged ever so humanistically, in a perfunctory, low-pressure way. And the picture has its effectiveness: people are crying at it. Of course they're crying at it—it's a piece of wet kitsch.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
“The strength of the film is really that of Cruise's performance...the combination of two superior performances makes the movie worth watching.”
Gene Siskel·Chicago Tribune
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorBarry Levinson
StarringDustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen, Jack Murdock
ComposerHans Zimmer
Rain Man
Academy Award × 4·National Film Registry
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
What critics thought
Rain Man lands somewhere between crowd-pleaser and prestige film, with most critics agreeing the two lead performances are the reason to watch while disagreeing sharply on whether the film around them earns its emotional weight. Hoffman's Raymond drew the most debate — some saw a towering technical achievement, others found it showy without dramatic payoff — while Cruise's work as the self-interested Charlie was more consistently admired than the film's marketing suggested it would be.
“a display of sustained virtuosity ... [that] makes no lasting connections with the emotions. Its end effect depends largely on one's susceptibility to the sight of an actor acting nonstop and extremely well, but to no particularly urgent dramatic purpose.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“I felt a certain love for Raymond, the Hoffman character. I don't know quite how Hoffman got me to do it.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“one of the year's most intriguing film premises ... is given uneven, slightly off-target treatment”
Amy Dawes·Variety
“Everything in this movie is fudged ever so humanistically, in a perfunctory, low-pressure way. And the picture has its effectiveness: people are crying at it. Of course they're crying at it—it's a piece of wet kitsch.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
“The strength of the film is really that of Cruise's performance...the combination of two superior performances makes the movie worth watching.”
Gene Siskel·Chicago Tribune
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorBarry Levinson
StarringDustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen, Jack Murdock
ComposerHans Zimmer
Rent/Purchase