Rain Man

Rating: 3/4 (Rain Man is a fun movie with some great acting by Dustin Hoffman)

A rain maker is a partner in a firm who brings in money or business. I must admit I only learnt this meaning of that word after watching Rain Man, a 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Charlie (Tom Cruise) is at a crisis in his car dealing business when he hears about his dad’s demise. Having lost his mom pretty early and run away from his dad once he was older, he only has his eyes on his dad’s will. But, he is shocked to discover that his Dad only left him his old car and his rose bushes and has written away the 3 million dollars of his property to a hospital that handles autistic patients. Seething with anger he demands his dad’s property from the hospital director, only to discover that he has an autistic elder brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) at the hospital. He kidnaps Raymond and drives him away to Los Angeles to contest for his dad’s property in court. The adventures on his 7-day drive through small-town USA with his autistic brother forms the crux of the movie.

Rain Man is clearly owned by Dustin Hoffman. You can go into the movie knowing very well how good an actor he is and still come out extremely impressed with his role of an autistic adult. He definitely deserved the Oscar he got for his acting in this movie. Tom Cruise fits like a glove into his role of an angry young man with an eye on money. The plot is ripe for milking out tears, but thankfully it turns it into a comedy of sorts, for which I am very glad. I would not give it the Best Picture Oscar that it got, but Rain Man is no doubt a fun movie with some great acting talent.