Drugstore.com Coupons
Cruise learns that his wealthy father has died, but the estate is awarded to an autistic older brother, Dustin Hoffman, that he didn't know he had.
Cruise kidnaps Hoffman from his Ohio institution, hoping to use him as leverage to pry a windfall from the estate, managed by Hoffman's doctor, Gerald R. Molen. Cruise's mercenary motives disappoint his hottie foreigner girlfriend, Valeria Golina, who leaves him.
Since Hoffman has a fear of flying, Cruise is forced to drive Hoffman cross-country back to California. Along the way, Cruise learns that Hoffman is a math genius. They stop in Las Vegas, where Hoffman's abilities allow Cruise to settle his business debts.
Now back in California, a custody hearing is scheduled that may cause Cruise to lose Hoffman to Molen. Because it's a movie, Cruise no longer cares about getting his share of the multi-million estate. Instead, he wants to care for his brother merely out of sibling love.
How others will see it. Rain Man was the biggest box office hit of 1988. It was also a critical success, and won four major Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Hoffman). The film remains highly popular today.
There is a small minority of people who dislike the movie because they are suspicious of Hoffman's character, who in their minds does not act like an authentic autistic.
How I felt about it. And I generally agree with them. Here we have The Beautiful Mind syndrome, in which a person with a mental or developmental problem is given amazing abilities as compensation.
In an early scene in Rain Man, a box of toothpicks spills onto the floor. Hoffman glances at the pile, and announces that it contains 246 toothpicks. I don't care if you are autistic, artistic, or fantastic. No one has such an ability. It is equivalent to running a thirty-second mile. A human being cannot do it.
Hoffman's Best Actor Oscar followed the Hollywood tradition of awarding such things for actors playing handicapped characters (Johnny Belinda, The Miracle Worker, Charly, Children of a Lesser God and others). Hoffman reportedly made substantial changes to the character and script, undoubtedly aware that those changes made winning the prized Oscar more likely.
Hoffman had won a Best Actor Oscar before, for Kramer vs. Kramer. There, Hoffman had the role to an extent reprised by Cruise in Rain Man, that of a man obsessed by his business career who must come to terms with new responsibilities of caring for a family member. The difference here is that Cruise wasn't even nominated. He's too unlikable.
Two good things did come from Rain Man: Avalon and Bugsy. Those were director Barry Levinson's next two films, and perhaps the overwhelming success of Rain Man allowed those two projects to receive the production resources needed to make them as good as they were.