Rain Man (1988)Director: Barry Levinson
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
There was recently a stage production of Rain Man at Glen St Theatre in Belrose which my dad and brother went to see. I wouldn't have minded going myself but had a prior engagement on the night that they were going, but it did put the film in my mind and made me want to watch it again.
When selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) finds out that his wealthy father, to whom he has not spoken for a number of years, has died. Glad that he will finally get his hands on his father's $3 million fortune, Charlie is floored when he finds that all he has been left in the will are his father's prized 1948 Buick convertible and his rose bushes. The remainder of the estate is to into a trust. When he goes to collect his car he discovers that trust is for a brother that he never knew he had, Raymond (Hoffman). Raymond is an autistic savant who lives at the Walbrook Institute. Charlie kidnaps Raymond, intending to use him to get what he sees as his rightful share of the estate. As the two travel across the country together Charlie's anger that his father should leave all his wealth to a man who has no need for money is replaced with anger that his father had kept his brother secret from him, as he struggles to establish a connection with his new found brother.
So much of this film's success is down to Dustin Hoffman, but it is not just because of his performance. Hoffman is very much responsible for the shaping of the final film. Initially Rain Man looked very different. It was to be a Martin Brest picture starring Hoffman as Charlie Babbitt and Bill Murray as his lovable retarded brother Raymond (kind of halfway between Forrest Gump and Sam from I Am Sam). Murray would pull out of the project when he discovered that Hoffman was more interested in playing the Raymond character, and Hoffman's determination that Raymond should be autistic rather than retarded, which transformed him from an overly affectionate man to an emotional blank canvas, led to the resignation of Brest. The film bounced around between a couple of directors including Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack, finally landing with Barry Levinson. The changes obviously worked as the film ended up winning four Oscars, including gongs for Hoffman and Levinson and Best Picture.
Hoffman's performance is amazing. He is a famously dedicated method actor and spent a year observing a number of autistic men to see how they interacted with people and to pick up mannerisms and quirks. I actually have two autistic cousins and while autism is a condition which differs from case to case, depending on its severity, I definitely recognised different aspects of his behaviour. The real challenge with this character is that usually films are all about change. Characters have a character arc, a journey they undertake which changes them in some way. Raymond is incapable of that change, and remains exactly the same man at the end as he was at the beginning. Despite that, Hoffman makes Raymond compelling to watch. He doesn't try and play him as cute or pathetic or lovable, he just delivers a very true and honest portrayal.
Obviously most of the credit goes to Hoffman for his amazing performance, but the achievement of Tom Cruise should not be ignored. With Raymond being such an emotion free character, the entire weight of the audiences engagement falls on Charlie, who is in pretty much every scene in the film. It is his frustration we feel as Raymond is incapable of interacting and engaging, as we are unable to get into his head. Hollywood conventions have us believing that if this odd-couple go on the road together, over time they will connect, but Raymond's condition doesn't allow for that to happen. Levinson doesn't bow to sentimentality. It was also a very bold move for Cruise to take the part on a couple of fronts. Firstly, Charlie is quite an unlikeable character, particularly early on in the film, which was a change for Cruise who usually plays romantic heroes. Secondly, with the film being dominated by just the two characters it required Cruise to back himself not to get blown off the screen by Hoffman. This was really Cruise's first big step from being a movie star to being an actor.
It was with an ironic smile that I watched the famous scene at the airport in which Raymond refuses to board a plane out of fear that they would crash, citing the fact that Qantas is the only airline to have not had a crash. That may still be the case but in the few weeks leading up to watching it Qantas have had their fair share of time in the news with various mid-air mishaps. That scene is a great scene of product endorsement for Qantas which they will be hoping to keep relevant.
Rain Man is a beautiful film. For a film which is set on the road and is constantly moving it is very theatrical (you can see how it would easily make the transition to the stage), centred almost entirely around these two characters. It is a thoughtful film which is at times uplifting, heart-breaking and funny. It's a real classic, and Hoffman's is one of the great screen performances.
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