The subtlety of Rain Man is what makes it a classic in my opinion. Many movies come out every year with pieces of what makes Rain Man so good, but very few ever put the pieces together to make something this wonderful. Rain Man takes several things that have become clichés (road trips, famous people playing the handicap role, long lost brothers) and it fills in the gaps with subtleties that make the film stand up over the years.

The movie has a very basic plot. Tom Cruise is a hothead who had a falling out with his dad years ago. The Dad dies and leaves the fortune to his other son, Dustin Hoffman. Well, Tom didn’t know about his brother until the will was read, so he goes and sort-of kidnaps him for a week while he drives from the east coast back to California. Why are they driving instead of flying? Because Dustin Hoffman is autistic and won’t fly due to statistics he memorized about plane crashes. He’s sort-of a super-computer autistic person who has the ability to memorize things in an instant and do crazy math problems at the drop of a …toothpick box.

That story line mixed with Hollywood and major celebrities is a sure recipe for a disappointing movie. But, magically, this movie made it through the Hollywood machine in tact. The reason why is that is doesn’t fill in all the blanks for us. A movie, in my opinion, becomes a classic when it doesn’t force-feed you. A movie that force-feeds you tells you exactly why the characters are the way they are. It tells you how you’re supposed to feel and when you’re supposed to feel that way. Movies that honestly reflect life don’t try to box everything up in an hour, they leave some things unanswered.

This is where the subtlety of Rain Man comes in. It gives us clues as to why things are the way they are, but it never flat out tells us. It doesn’t give us easy answers, because it is realistic. I’ll try to explain what I’m talking about.

Tom Cruise’s character in this movie is always yelling at people, talking down to them, and just plain treating them like crap. Why does he act that way? The movie never tells us. It just gives us clues; we can put the pieces together for ourselves.

Possibilities: It sure seems like this could stem from his poor relationship with his father. Wouldn’t that make you feel a little insecure? To hide it you act cocky and brash and you don’t let anyone into your world (even your girlfriend) because they might see the real you? It’s a possibility.

Why would Tom Cruise’s dad, a character we never meet, treat him so poorly? Possibly he’s depressed because he couldn’t handle having a handicapped son? Maybe he feels guilt from having to send his autistic son away because he was becoming dangerous to his other son? Maybe he never treated Tom Cruise’s character right because when he looked at him he was reminded that he had to send another son away?

To me a movie becomes alive when it brings up questions like these. I’m treating the characters like real people. That means they’re acting like real people.

Another thing that adds to the movie’s sense of reality is its honesty. Cruise and Hoffman’s relationship grows in the movie, but it never strays too far away from the reality that autistic people don’t have a lot of “mushy” emotions. They don’t typically have strong affections/feelings for people.

Since the movie does a good job of setting up the emotional chasm that exists between Cruise and Hoffman the subtle (not always too subtle) bonds that they make in the movie are much more pronounced. However, if Dustin Hoffman hadn’t have gone a little crazy after a couple of those sentimental moments, the connections between the brothers wouldn’t have been such a big deal.

Rain Man, in my opinion, is one of the finest movies that Hollywood put out in the eighties. It’s a movie that has a couple great characters with a very unique relationship. It’s a movie you can watch many times and still find yourself enjoying because it makes you think and it makes you care. If a movie can do those two things while I’m watching it, I think it’s worth my time. Rain Man is definitely one that’s worth your time.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age