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Rain Man is a
1988 comedy-drama film written by Barry Morrow and
Ronald Bass and directed by
Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive
yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his
multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond, a
savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware.
The film stars
Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbitt,
Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt, and
Valeria Golino as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting
Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and
Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of
Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote.
[Barry Morrow's audio commentary for Rain Man from the DVD release.] The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews at the time of its release, praising Hoffman's role and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay.