Rain Man-Rocky Start, Good-Natured Finish

Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in 'Rain Man', directed by Barry Levinson. Copyright 1988, United Artists.

On Sunday night, I watched Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the Academy Award-winning 'Rain Man'.

To those who are unfamiliar, Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, a troubled, shady Lamborghini dealer who's hoping for some inheritance money from his recently deceased, estranged father to pay the bills. But he gets more than he bargained for when he discovers the trustee of said money is his unknown brother, Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman, an autistic savant with unique memorization skills, but often troubled mannerisms in socializing.

Hoping to get Raymond to give him half his father's money, Charlie attempts to whisk him away to Los Angeles. But when he is forced to drive Raymond from Ohio instead of flying, a bond begins to grow between the brothers.

At first, I didn't like Charlie's exasperated and greedy attitude toward Raymond. I also couldn't relate to Raymond's level of autism compared to mine. Those aside, I grew to like the film because Raymond gave Charlie closure over his fractured relationship with his father and made him realize he can still have a happy life. That was very touching.

I once heard of references to 'Rain Man' in 'The Hangover', specifically Alan talking about Raymond's counting cards in Vegas and the main men pulling into their casino dressed like winners. Even though the plan was for Charlie to get his money, I liked how he found something better. Spoiler alert, he teaches Raymond to dance, Raymond gets to live like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers when dancing in the elevator with Charlie's girlfriend Susana, played by Valeria Golino, and Susanna tells Raymond any woman would be fortunate to be with him. Another thing to enjoy was Hans Zimmer's scoring sounding like worldly 

Raymond may not be your conventional guy, but that's not a bad thing. Whether winning casino money or being good with memories or human calculating, I think the message of 'Rain Man' is that there's hope for people with "disabilities" and they can make us better, too, if we let them. I won't spill any more details until you see 'Rain Man' yourself.