Sunday, December 4, 2011

OCD Films Part 2: Rain Man

Part 2 of our look at OCD characters in film will look at another academy award winning movie - Rain Man.

The Rain Man is question is autistic savant Raymond Babbitt played by Dustin Hoffman (won the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role). Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt who finds out he has a brother after his father dies. Charlie is down in his luck and looks to inherit 3 million dollars until he finds out it is going to do to the mental institution his estranged brother lives in.

Charlie takes Raymond on a cross country journey to get his attorney to settle out of court for half of the 3 million. Raymond has many little ticks like repeating the "Who's on first" sketch over and over. He also has a photographic memory and is a wizz at mathematics. Charlie tries to exploit this by taking Raymond to Las Vegas to win big. During the course of movie Charlie realises that Raymond is the protective figure from his childhood he had been calling Rain Man and when he eventually gets him to the court appointed psychiatrist he changes his mind as he has developed a bond and truley loves his brother.

The most effective movies portraying people with a disability or tick or disorder aren't heavy handed and show that ALL of the characters in the movie have their own faults and funny little ways of doing things and deep down we're all just trying to live our lives and get through each day as it arrives.

Wash Away the Rain!

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