Now its portrayal of autism is seen as somewhat crude. However, there is no denying the power of the story and of Dustin Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance as Raymond Babbitt.

| Jan 2, 2024

Yet his [Tom Cruise's] charisma is what keeps Barry Levinson’s film running smoothly.

| Feb 27, 2023

It's the Christmas picture that cares, the UNICEF epic, and that must explain why no one seems to notice, or to care, that from minute to minute. the story itself is second-hand hokum.

| Aug 8, 2022

The rigidity of Raymond's mind is Hoffman's opening to actor's poetry... He has created an image of disconnection and bafflement almost as memorable as Beckett's.

| Aug 4, 2022

In every detail -- the superb soundtrack, the rich cinematography, the distinctively edgy editing -- Rain Man reveals itself as a move made with care, smarts and a refreshing refusal to settle for the expected.

| Aug 4, 2022

The slack, windy script, by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass, is forever recapitulating the obvious, and the director, Barry Levinson, exercises no discernible control over it or his actors.

| Aug 4, 2022

Mr. Cruise showed enormous promise in his early films, Risky Business and All The Right Moves. But since then, he's been on Cruise control... Here, he's back at work and it shows. In less obvious ways, the younger actor is every bit Mr. Hoffman's equal.

| Aug 4, 2022

What makes the film credible is Barry Levinson’s direction. He is one of the very few Hollywood directors who is an acute observer of human behavior for its own sake.

| Aug 4, 2022

Your affection for Hoffman's character, Raymond Babbitt, grows slowly, but it lingers with a sweet aftertaste.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 4, 2022

[Dustin Hoffman] enters his character with the stagey-yet-dead-on empathy that creates an affectively deep, full performance.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 4, 2022

Hoffman delivers the performance of his career... [And] Tom Cruise is no slouch, either. The box office's hottest leading man of the moment gracefully subordinates his co-lead status to lend supporting ballast to Hoffman's glowing dramatic maturity.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 3, 2022

The film is rather long at 135 minutes, and starts like any old television problem movie. But it does warm to its task and, in the end, the least you can say of it is that it tells a good story with consummate skill.

| Aug 3, 2022

In a sense, Dustin Hoffman has the easier assignment, one at any rate that offers the infinite scope to the research that suits his temperament as an actor, but there's no doubt that his Raymond is a remarkable achievement.

| Aug 3, 2022

Director Barry Levinson constantly finds an effective balance between what is funny and what is serious, making us realize they are often one and the same.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 3, 2022

Barry Levinson and all concerned should be proud of this quiet, complex, subtle movie. They avoid clichés, and instant tears and laughs, and tell a sensitive story honestly and well.

| Aug 3, 2022

Levinson directs with tremendous skill and sympathy, and a rich sense of humor. His fondness for overlapping, scatological dialogue, familiar from his earlier films, is given full rein here, and he helps Dustin Hoffman give the performance of his career.

| Aug 3, 2022

Everything in this movie is fudged ever so humanistically, in a perfunctory, low-pressure way. And the picture has its effectiveness: people are crying at it. Of course they’re crying at it -- it’s a piece of wet kitsch.

| Jun 15, 2022

Rain Man is a buddy movie about two guys who barely connect, and the miracle of the film is how simply -- and powerfully -- it connects with us.

| Feb 10, 2022

As directed by Barry Levinson, the film is touching without sentimentality and funny -- very funny -- without derision or condescension.

| Feb 3, 2020

Barry Levinson directs in masterful style. It is his best effort in what promises to be a distinguished career.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 22, 2018