How do you get through to someone who is seemingly incapable of understanding another human being?

It may seem like a broad question, and that is because it really is. There are several types of people in the world who have the problem of not being able to look beyond themselves: the emotionally disconnected, the isolated recluses and those who choose to inhabit their own world rather than face a harsh reality. Rain Man is a film that explores our shortsightedness with each other using two uniquely different men who also happen to be brothers. Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is in love with no one other than himself. As a wheeling-and-dealing Los Angeles automobile salesman, Charlie can smooth talk his way into someone's pocket, not exiting until every last dollar has been sucked dry. He is a workaholic driven solely by the means of becoming unimaginably rich to put his murky past completely behind him. He is a man of little feeling who specializes in keeping his girlfriend Susanna (Valeria Golino) far away from his thoughts. As the movie opens, Charlie is informed of the passing of his father -- a man who Charlie has long taken out of his memory due to a falling out long ago. His reaction is callous to say the least, and it allows us to see just how detached from others Charlie has become. When he and Susanna head back east for the funeral, Charlie is greeted by his father's lawyer who has the unfortunate duty of informing Mr. Babbitt that he has been all but excised from his father's will. Receiving only a Buick Roadmaster -- the very car that tore father and son's relationship apart -- and prized rosebushes, Charlie learns that his father's $3 million fortune has been placed in a trust.

The trust, as it turns out, is set up to support an older brother Charlie never knew he had. Raymond Babbitt -- played by Dustin Hoffman in an Academy Award-winning role -- could not be more different from his brother, but that is not entirely his fault. He is a high-functioning autistic savant -- meaning that while he is capable of inhuman feats, such as memorizing an entire phone book from A-G and solving incredibly difficult math problems in his head, he also is living in his own fantasy-like world of routine. When one of those routines gets disturbed, Raymond goes berserk.

As Charlie feels necessary in order to receive his share of the inheritance, he steals Raymond from an institution and subtly holds him for ransom. This is where the voyage of Rain Man begins. How can two men who can't communicate with one another, let alone the rest of the world, come together to better one another?

We soon learn that while Raymond is incapable of changing his daily rituals, Charlie is, and the movie is a mission of discovery only for him. The reason the film works is because Hoffman understands Raymond so well. He realizes that he is dealing with someone who can never fully understand our world, and he does not try to make Raymond change. Cruise on the other hand allows for Charlie to come to love his brother, and with that love, finally opens his heart to others around him. He is not a different man than he was in the opening of the film, but rather an altered one.

In this way, Rain Man is a film that offers hope for everyone. If two men with inescapably different views on reality can form a bond of love and understanding, then couldn't we all?