Editing Rain Man (section)

===Critical response===
On [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''Rain Man'' holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus states: "This road-trip movie about an autistic savant and his callow brother is far from seamless, but Barry Levinson's direction is impressive, and strong performances from Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman add to its appeal."<ref>{{cite web |title = ''Rain Man'' (1988) |url = https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rain_man/ |work = [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date = August 3, 2022 |publisher = [[Fandango Media]] |archive-date = June 24, 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220624032441/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rain_man |url-status = live }}</ref> [[Metacritic]] assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rain-man |title=''Rain Man'' Reviews |work=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |access-date=March 1, 2018 |archive-date=March 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311190043/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/rain-man |url-status=live }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A", on a scale of A+ to F.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-12-20|title=Cinemascore :: Movie Title Search|url=https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/|access-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/|archive-date=December 20, 2018}}</ref>

[[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called ''Rain Man'': {{cquote|becomingly modest, decently thought-out, sometimes funny film"; Hoffman's performance was a "display of sustained virtuosity ... [that] makes no lasting connections with the emotions. Its end effect depends largely on one's susceptibility to the sight of an actor acting nonstop and extremely well, but to no particularly urgent dramatic purpose.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite web |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=December 16, 1988 |title=Review/Film; Brotherly Love, of Sorts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/16/movies/review-film-brotherly-love-of-sorts.html |access-date=February 27, 2023 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>}} Canby considered the "film's true central character" to be "the confused, economically and emotionally desperate Charlie, beautifully played by Mr. Cruise."<ref name="nytimes" />

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three and a half stars out of four. He wrote: {{cquote|Hoffman proves again that he almost seems to thrive on impossible acting challenges. ... I felt a certain love for Raymond, the Hoffman character. I don't know quite how Hoffman got me to do it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=December 16, 1988 |title=Rain Man movie review & film summary (1988) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rain-man-1988 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206023522/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rain-man-1988 |archive-date=December 6, 2022 |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=RogerEbert.com |language=en}}</ref>}} [[Gene Siskel]] also gave the film three and a half stars out of four, singling out Cruise for praise: "The strength of the film is really that of Cruise's performance...the combination of two superior performances makes the movie worth watching."<ref>{{cite web |last=Siskel |first=Gene |date=December 16, 1988 |title=Cruise's Performance Gives 'Rain Man' Strength |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-12-16-8802250650-story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230227181315/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-12-16-8802250650-story.html |archive-date=February 27, 2023 |access-date=February 21, 2021 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref>

Amy Dawes of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote that "one of the year's most intriguing film premises ... is given uneven, slightly off-target treatment"; she called the road scenes "hastily, loosely written, with much extraneous screen time", but admired the last third of the film, calling it a depiction of "two very isolated beings" who "discover a common history and deep attachment".<ref name="variety">{{Cite news |last=Dawes |first=Amy |date=December 14, 1988 |title=Rain Man |work=Variety |url=http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Variety100&reviewid=VE1117488019&content=jump&jump=review&category=1935&cs=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228072537/http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Variety100&reviewid=VE1117488019&content=jump&jump=review&category=1935&cs=1 |archive-date=February 28, 2009}}</ref>

One of the film's harshest reviews came from ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine critic [[Pauline Kael]], who said, "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]]."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Kael |first=Pauline |title=Stunt |date=February 6, 1989 |url=https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/rain-man-review-pauline-kael/ |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |via=Scraps From The Loft |access-date=February 17, 2023}}</ref>

''Rain Man'' was placed on 39 critics' "ten best" lists in 1988, based on a poll of the nation's top 100 critics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-08-ca-257-story.html|title=100 Film Critics Can't Be Wrong, Can They? : The critics' consensus choice for the 'best' movie of '88 is . . . a documentary!|date=January 8, 1989|website=Los Angeles Times|access-date=May 9, 2020|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308123835/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-08-ca-257-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>