I was surprised at how well Dustin Hoffman did at portraying an autistic guy, and at how big of a prick Tom Cruise’s greedy, money-hungry character was as well. After his father dies, Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) finds out he has a brother when his father’s will fails to bestow anything to him except for his classic car and his prized rose bushes. The rest of his fortune, to the tune of around $3 million, is left to a third party, whom Babbitt quickly tracks down at a mental institution. Babbitt decides to take his brother, in essence kidnapping him, only to find that his abnormal behavior is somewhat difficult to deal with.

I enjoyed Rain Man because of the development of Cruise’s character throughout the story, but also mostly because the ending was more realistic than it was happy-perfect-storybook. You get to see a relationship develop between two adult brothers and the way that each one change’s the others life. This one achieves a respectable 4.5 on our scale of greatness.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm and is filed under R.