Barry Levinson
Rain Man

“You shower, Ray, don't you?”

“Yes”

“Rain is the same thing, you get a little wet”

“Sure, you take a shower in the bathroom, always”

Many will say that “Rain Man” is too “Hollywood-like” a film, or condemn it as too moralistic or tear-jerking, assuming that a story about an autistic person, if transposed to film, and in certain terms, deserves little artistically. Where is the creation? Where is the cinematic invention? Where is the element that clashes, that makes you frown, that confronts the viewer with the desire not to please them? Among the detractors, surely there are many who might have thought so, seeking something terribly transgressive and unconventional during the viewing. Instead, “Rain Man” is a great film precisely because it doesn’t exaggerate.

A road movie with a plot that probably couldn’t be simpler and more conventional: two brothers meet as adults after being separated at a young age – one is autistic, the other wants to exploit the other's condition for his own gain, but over time, he will grow so attached to him that he abandons all utilitarianism.
It’s not so much the richness of the plot that makes the film convincing, nor the beginning, nor the end, but what's in between, and the style that is used, which is very simple, realistic, almost naive. This certainly helped the general audience to empathize and appreciate a story as delicate as it is common, but it is rather, in principle, an intelligent directorial choice – because it’s powerful in its intent to be nothing more than itself – that emotionally resonates with the minimum, with what is expected, and at the same time unexpected, thus eliciting both laughter and reflection.

Okay, the music exudes the Eighties, the atmospheres are very light; Tom Cruise is not an actor that charismatic and communicative – a bit like John Travolta who, like Cruise, looks good in how he presents himself –; the dialogues and situations are not that elaborate … Let's say okay to all this, but (and this “but” should be emphasized) that’s not the point, not for “Rain Man”.

Barry Levinson's film (in which he also plays a small part at the end) is built on a significant crescendo of emotions, which leads both the viewer and the characters themselves to experience the escalation through a series of believable situations that, however, resolve into tragicomical absurdities.
The spectacular acting of Dustin Hoffman, for which he received an Oscar, is its backbone, allowing the story to take place. Cruise undergoes a formation journey thanks to the brother he never knew he had; Raymond/Rain Man, on the other hand, remains the same always, inevitably, though experiencing emotions he wouldn't have had but for his brother.
The wordplay based on a childhood distortion (Raymond, mispronounced by a young Charlie Babbitt) is one of the film's brilliant touches. The highway scene, from which the two brothers' coast-to-coast journey truly begins: another brilliant aspect.

The "moral of the story," which seeks to please no one, is that in some situations, you simply have to accept the conditions as they are, not try to change them, but rather adapt to them in order to rediscover yourself.
The ending, which I won’t reveal for those who haven't seen the film, is far from the idyllic one might expect. Perhaps some would prefer a twist on the theme, to find an anomaly, but Levinson, and the screenwriters (Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow) knew the reality of autism, and in representing an autistic character, they wanted to, and succeeded in bringing him respect.

Trivia:

- the film is inspired by a true story – that of Kim Peek, an “idiot savant”;

- the final scene was filmed during the writers' strike;

- Valeria Golino was chosen because she had an exotic accent, not “square,” not cold;

- Tom Cruise was fresh off the success of “Top Gun” when he was cast for “Rain Man”;

- Dustin Hoffman was initially set to play the role of Charlie Babbitt, the autistic brother's sibling, but after meeting people with autism, he decided to switch roles and embrace all the peculiarities of the central character (“the rain man”).

Rating: 8.5/10