Rain Man

Year: 1988
Running time: 133 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
Director: Barry Levinson
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Jerry Molen, Michael D. Roberts

I've seen Rain Man a few times now. Since the last time I watched it, we've had the whole Weinstein thing happen in Hollywood, which spread to a large number of actors, including one Dustin Hoffman. When questioned on the accusations and his conduct by John Oliver, Hoffman didn't seem to understand what the problem was, which is an unfortunate attitude shared by many who are happy with the status quo. The point is, it's not easy to assimilate the complicated effect this has on how you see your favourite actors. Hoffman is undeniably an incredible performer, and Rain Man is one of his very best. To disregard Rain Man in light of the accusations feels like a disservice everyone else involved in the making of it, but to wax lyrical about Hoffman's standout performance feels too much like tacit approval of his attitude. If I was to write a review of Kill Bill now, I expect it would be different now I have a clearer idea of what Tarantino put Uma Thurman through, and I have no idea how to approach reviewing a Woody Allen or Roman Polanski film. Anyway, these thoughts belong on a different blog, so to Rain Man.

Ready to clean up.

Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) is a child of the '80s. Gordon Gekko-lite, he is a yuppie car dealer focusing pretty much exclusively on making money, and lots of it. Estranged from his father, he nevertheless expects a significant inheritance when his father dies. Turns out he's not going to get it, as the money ends up in trust for a hitherto unknown brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). Raymond is autistic and resides in care. In an attempt to somehow get at his late father's money, Charlie takes Raymond out of his care facility and on a road trip.

Charlie has no clue how to deal with Raymond's eccentricities and has little patience with him to begin with. Charlie simply can't get into a state of mind that allows him to understand what his brother is going through, or more to the point, how he sees and processes the world around him. Once it becomes clear that Raymond is a savant, he tries his luck convincing Raymond to try counting cards in a casino with typical selfishness. Slowly, Charlie begins to form a bond with Raymond, and over the course of the film Charlie goes from wanting the cash to wanting to care for his brother - still not necessarily understanding him, but better able to empathise with him.

Charlie's girlfriend Susanna (Valeria Golino) shares a quiet moment with

Raymond.

Hoffman is undeniably brilliant, injecting Raymond with a striking innocence, making you feel for this man locked inside his own head. You long for him to be able to express himself and throughout the film when there are little moments that indicate that in his own way, Raymond is beginning to bond a little with Charlie too, it's wonderfully heart-warming. An often unsung hero in the film however is Tom Cruise, who has a difficult job with an unlikeable character. Charlie's arc from greedy money-grabber to loving brother is handled beautifully, and in a film without such a powerful central performance Cruise would've been standout. It's easy to forget sometimes that Cruise is a genuinely great performer in the right role.

By the end, it becomes clear, even to Charlie, albeit reluctantly, that Raymond requires a higher level of care than he is able to provide, so the film finishes on a somewhat bittersweet note; Raymond goes back into care, but Charlie has found a family he hadn't really realised he'd lost.

Great acting work in service to a story that's uplifting but just a touch melancholic.

Score: 8/10

Rain Man appears to be highly-praised across the board - see these reviews at the Ace Black Blog and by Emma at Empire.

The Wizard of Oz / Return to Oz

Year: 1939 (Wizard), 1985 (Return)
Running time: 102 minutes (Wizard), 113 minutes (Return)
Certificate: U (Wizard), PG (Return)
Language: English
Screenplay: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf (Wizard), Walter Murch, Gill Dennis (Return)
Director: Victor Fleming (Wizard), Walter Murch (Return)
Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Sean Barrett (voice), Denise Bryer (voice), Brian Henson (voice), Lyle Conway (voice), Emma Ridley, Justin Case, Pons Maar

Dorothy and friends are having second thoughts about visiting the wizard.

An undeniable classic, The Wizard of Oz is a delight to experience for the 1st or 41st time. Brimming over with character, colour and weirdness, it entertains and confounds in equal measure.

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) is a young girl living on a Kansas farm who dreams of seeing the big wide world. Her wish is granted when a tornado rips through her farm and knocks her unconscious. She comes to in the fantastical land of Oz, where she embarks on a quest to get back home, befriending Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tin Man (Jack Haley) and Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) on the way to ask the mysterious Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan) to grant her wish. All the while, the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) is determined to destroy her.

That extremely brief plot synopsis was probably entirely pointless, since pretty much everybody is familiar with the story, whether they've actually seen it or not. The Wizard of Oz is one of those beautiful examples, like Bambi, Toy Story or Spirited Away (all of which tap similar thematic material as The Wizard of Oz, being childhood fears of finding yourself alone, having to fend for yourself, forced to assume responsibility before you're ready), of a children's film that is actually amongst the best films ever made despite the limitations involved with ensuring suitability for a younger target audience. While it taps some primal childhood fears about losing the safety net of your family, it also hits a nostalgic sweet spot for adults, allowing them to reminisce about how they managed to negotiate the choppy waters of growing up.

To be fair, Dorothy has just dropped a house on her sister...

Judy Garland's wistful delivery of Over the Rainbow is mesmerising and remains the best version by a comfortable margin, Eva Cassidy notwithstanding. The switch from black and white (or sepia, depending on the version you're watching) to full on Technicolour is still dazzling even now; goodness knows how effective it would have been in 1939, when a lot of films were still being released in black and white.

There are imperfections. Some of the songs, particularly the overlong introduction to the munchkins and If I Were King of the Forest are pretty dated. Of course, the signature tunes are all still brilliant, and just because a couple of them are slightly off it doesn’t detract much from the overall quality of the film. The effects are what you might expect from the time, but they somehow manage only to add to the charm in a way that seamless CGI wouldn't.

Dorothy's collection of freaky new friends.

46 years later comes Disney's sequel, Return to Oz. Cleaving much closer to the spirit of L. Frank Baum's Oz novels, it is an entirely different beast. It does, however, manage to defy all expectations by being a glorious, horrifying childhood headfuck. While The Wizard of Oz is a fantasyland dreamt up by an unconscious Dorothy, Return to Oz is an escape from an asylum and electro-shock therapy, as because of all her talk of munchkins, Dorothy's family have had her committed. Dorothy is played by a young Fairuza Balk, who nails the look and mannerisms of a haunted, wide-eyed young girl perfectly.

Oz is no longer a Technicolour marvel, instead it's a little post-apocalyptic, where the rightful king Scarecrow (Justin Case. Seriously, that is his name) and his subjects have been usurped by the sinister Nome King (Nicol Williamson). Gangs of roaming creatures called the wheelies (oh-my-god-what-the-hell-are-the-wheelies-get-them-off-the-screen-they’re-freaking-me-out) harass Dorothy in a scary, nightmarish world.

Dorothy tries not to get freaked out by the Nome King.

Even here, she makes a few friends - Tic-Tok (voiced by Sean Barratt, performed by someone inside the suit walking on their hands!) is a mechanical man and Jack Pumpkinhead (voiced by Brian Henson) is literally a collection of sticks with a pumpkin for a head. Before taking on the Nome King, Dorothy must best Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh), a woman so obsessed with retaining her youth she's taken to stealing the heads of young women and changing them over to suit her mood like some kind of macabre Worzel Gummidge.

So much of this film defies logical expectation and comes on like some kind of weird fever-dream it really shouldn't work at all, but, scaring young kids half to death aside, it really does. It shares stylistic DNA with Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, but for some reason isn't as readily remembered.

What we have then is a wonderful film fully deserving of its classic status and a forgotten fever-dream sequel that deserves reappraisal.

Score:
The Wizard of Oz: 8/10
Return to Oz: 7/10

You'll be unsurprised to hear that the original is beloved by all, evidenced best in this Roger Ebert review. I was pleasantly surprised by the love the sequel has out there, as shown in this review by Louisa at Den of Geek.

Ratatouille

Year: 2007
Running time: 111 minutes
Certificate: U
Language: English
Screenplay: Brad Bird
Directors: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
Starring (voices): Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Peter Sohn, Brian Dennehy

Remy admires Pixar's gorgeously crafted view.

There is no doubt that your average Pixar film is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and technically astounding, but if you think for a second that this is the reason for their phenomenal success as opposed to simply icing on the cake, then you are wrong. And a fool, to boot. Ratatouille is, of course, simply beautiful to look at, with, amongst other things, Paris being rendered with a warmth and vitality that most filmmakers could barely dream of. Like all Pixar films, however, the look takes second fiddle to story.

About a rat who has a talent for cooking and wants to become a chef, this is Pixar’s most autobiographical film to date. Remy (Patton Oswalt), the rat in question is Pixar, and the little rodent’s talent for taking initially surprising ingredients and turning them into something remarkable is the Pixar approach to storytelling and movie making. Moreover, the heart of this story is the idea that a true artist can really come from anywhere, with Remy fulfilling his dream from being a gutter-dwelling rat to world class chef paralleling Pixar’s journey from minor animation studio to one of the most successful animation studios in the world today.

Remy's clan is forced to move house and he finds himself separated, lost and alone in Paris. He manages to reach the famous Gusteau's restaurant, now a shadow of its former self since his death, and ends up at the mercy of Linguini (Lou Romano), who just can't bring himself to end the little rat's life. Partly because he's been tasked with re-creating a soup that Remy, inspired by master chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), had made before being caught in the kitchen. The two team up and Linguini becomes the new star of Gusteau's, much to the annoyance of boss Skinner (Ian Holm).

Food for thought.

Linguini's nervous courtship of Colette (Janeane Garofalo) is sweet stuff, but it is Remy and Linguini who are at the centre of this story. When the merciless food critic responsible for the ruination of Gusteau's, Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) returns to the restaurant see what all the fuss is about, Remy decides to hit him with a simple yet stunning ratatouille.

It is, like many Pixar films, difficult to imagine how they could have improved it, with the climax in particular being perfect – for all the dazzling action of the endings of Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and  The Incredibles, a scene of a man sitting at a table reacting to the food he is served is possibly the most emotionally affecting ending of any Pixar film. Just beautiful stuff.

Score: 9/10

A particular story conceit and a few other blips cause Ratatouille to fall short of greatness according to Bill, but Ian at Empire is right on the money about that conceit and the film as a whole.