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Rain Man
1988
Callous hustler Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is busy working on his next deal when he receives word that his estranged father has died. After travelling back to Ohio from Los Angeles for the funeral, Charlie is miffed to find that although he will receive a vintage Buick from his father's estate, he isn't getting a cent of the .. Read more
| Starring | Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino, Bonnie Hunt |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Levinson |
| Genres | Drama |
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Rain Man
Callous hustler Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is busy working on his next deal when he receives word that his estranged father has died. After travelling back to Ohio from Los Angeles for the funeral, Charlie is miffed to find that although he will receive a vintage Buick from his father's estate, he isn't getting a cent of the three-million-dollar fortune. Instead, Charlie finds that the money has been left to the caretakers of his institutionalized autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). Once he gets over the shock of the existence of a brother of whom he seems to have no recollection, Charlie kidnaps Raymond and heads cross-country in the Buick in an attempt to get a cut of the inheritance to pay off some of his failing deals. However, during their adventure, Charlie not only learns how to deal with Raymond's many idiosyncrasies, but he also actually begins to care about his older brother, surprising even himself with his ability to love and his realization that money isn't necessarily the most important thing.
Barry Levinson (GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, DINER) directs Barry Morrow and Ron Bass's script with impeccable timing and a wonderful sense of humour. All three were awarded Oscars for their efforts, as was Hoffman for his truly mesmerising performance as the autism-afflicted Raymond.
| Starring | Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino, Bonnie Hunt, Michael D. Roberts, Lucinda Jenney, Jerry Molden, John M. Murdock, Kim Robillard, Ralph Seymour |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Levinson |
| Studio | MGM ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 7 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Eighties Greats |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English, German |
| Subtitles | Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 01 Feb 2000 Production year: 1988 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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While everyone remembers this film about an autistic man as Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning triumph, it is equally Tom Cruise's. As a fast-talking wheeler-dealer living out the 1980s dream, he learns that not only is he out of his father's will (save for a 1949 Buick), he also has an institutionalised elder brother (Hoffman). This is a classic road movie, with the two siblings crossing country to California in the Buick. Hoffman's savant — a mass of baseball and airline disaster statistics, prone to hysterics if his routine is broken — is one of modern cinema's great triumphs: believable, unsentimental, often hilarious. But without Cruise, whose emotional journey runs from confused and impatient to understanding, protective and eventually loving, there is no film. Director Barry Levinson handles the whole thing beautifully, and also won an Oscar, and the film took the best picture award.
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"...[For] Hoffman, RAIN MAN is a star's dream of a role....A becomingly modest, decently thought-out, sometimes funny film..."
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Most helpful member's review
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40 out of 44 people found this review helpful
Phenominal
Probably the best film to come out of the eighties, by far. Although, I am biased. My son is autistic.
When this film was in production both Cruise and Hoffman thought it was no where near good enough to the point Hoffman nearly walked. Fortunately, they stayed. The film picked up 4 Oscars and two Golden Globes among many other awards and nominations and pretty much made Cruise.
Dustin Hoffman's performance as Raymond Babbitt is, bar none, the best acting performance I have ever seen. I have never seen an actor get so deeply immersed in a character than Hoffman does in this film. As for Tom Cruise, his performance as Raymond's childish and hotheaded brother is also worthy of note. To watch his character slowly shed his ignorance throughout the course of the film was indeed a delight.
Dustin plays Raymond 'The Rain Man' Babbitt, the long lost, autistic brother of Charlie Babbitt (Cruise). As Charlie finds out he has a brother never revealed to him by his father he feels let down and betrayed, and even more so that now his father is dead and leaving his estate, to the value of $3,000,000 to his brother, and not to himself. So Charlie decides to take Raymond away from the medical institution he was left in, and goes on a huge road trip, not willing to give his brother up, unless the institutes settles his share of his father's assets.
Quite simply legendary. Fact.
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- JediSi
- Posted 25 Aug 2007 20:56
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Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Well I never...
I never liked the look of this film when it came out but I have been on a Dustin Hoffman film catch up and was very impressed.
The performances of Hoffman and Tom Cruise were wonderful. It is a very 80's film but don't hold that against it. Well worth renting and watching again! I feel silly having not watched it before. -
News and features
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Hoffman eyes jazz career
- 09 Mar 2009
Dustin Hoffman is chasing an unfulfilled life ambition to become a jazz pianist. The Rain Man actor has starred in dozens of hit films in his thirty-year big-screen career - but he insists he would give up Hollywood in an instant to be an accomplished piano player. And so the star has begun taking lessons to help him achieve his dream. He says, "I promised myself that before I kicked the bucket I'd become a decent jazz player. The guy I'm practising with says he'll have me playing in a year. "I Read more
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Rain Man
Callous hustler Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is busy working on his next deal when he receives word that his estranged father has died. After travelling back to Ohio from Los Angeles for the funeral, Charlie is miffed to find that although he will receive a vintage Buick from his father's estate, ...
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