Okay, four reviews in one day, not so bad. Rain Man was a weird film to have on the list, because it’s one of the ones that gets a lot of pop culture references, and yet I still had no idea what it was about. But now I’ll get those references for the rest of my life!
Thank you, Tom. Okay so Rain Man is a film about a guy named Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), a sleezy sort of businessman who is the process of importing four Lamborghinis into the US for resale. Unfortunately, there’s a problem at the border with the EPA on account of the cars emissions statuses, and Charlie took out a loan to pay for the cars, and the buyers have already paid for them, so it’s kind of a financial mess. While all of this is going down, Charlie finds out that his estranged father has died.
Charlie quickly learns that his father is leaving his $3 million estate to a brother that Charlie didn’t even know he had, Raymond Babbitt. Raymond lives in a mental institution, and Charlie takes (kidnaps?) him to try to figure out how to get his $3 million.
Charlie is annoying, ruthless, and incapable of understanding Raymond’s situation. He reminded me a lot of Matthew McConaughey’s character from Dallas Buyers Club, which kind of made me wonder if this was a cheesy movie about an unlikeable middle-aged white guy learning to accept someone who was different from him. Well it is actually exactly that.
Raymond is insistent on sticking to his routines from the mental institution, which makes it impossible for Charlie to get him on a plane, drive on the highway, or even make him miss Jeopardy. Charlie does soon learn, however, that while Raymond has a high-functioning form of autism, he is also a mathematical genius.
Their fraternal bond grows deeper as they continue their cross-country drive from the mental institution in Ohio to Los Angeles, where Charlie needs to get to figure out his Lamborghini situation. But not without a few bumps.
Interestingly, the film is credited as both creating misconceptions about autism (that all people with autism have some kind of genius) as well as spreading awareness of the mental illness. The film includes a scene where Raymond effortlessly counts cards in Vegas, which has been parodied multiple times in pop culture, including The Hangover.
The film is also credited for creating the rumor that counting cards is illegal. It’s not!
Well, the feel-good film went on to become the highest grossing movie of 1988, winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman. And yet, it’s not in the AFI Top 100 or the IMDb Top 250.
Also since there aren’t that many gifs of Dustin Hoffman from Rain Man, here’s one from a much more exciting film, Steven Spielberg’s Hook.
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