What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.
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- Cast：
- Johnny Depp , Juliette Lewis , Leonardo DiCaprio , Mary Steenburgen , Darlene Cates , Laura Harrington , Mary Kate Schellhardt
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Reviews
One of my all time favorites.
Did you people see the same film I saw?
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is one of my favorite movies. It has everything going for it. The acting is phenomenal, all the actors were great the best of which being Leonardo DiCaprio, it is one of the best acting performances I've ever seen and is pretty underrated seeing as he didn't even win the Oscar. It is a very realistic movie about a family that is all types of messed up. The mom is obese and the younger brother is special Ed. The little sister is a brat but not to the point were it makes you too angry. The movie takes its time and the only real plot is that it's Arnie's (the special Ed brother played by Leonardo DiCaprio.) 18th birthday coming up and because the doctor said we wouldn't live past 10 it's a big deal. While all this happens we see these characters develop. We see how much of a loving and great brother Gilbert (Johnny Depp) is. We also see that despite how fat and seemingly lazy Bonnie Grape (Darlene Cates) is a mother that would do almost anything for Arnie. By the time she dies at the end is genuinely sad. Gilbert is an extremely reliable character that though has messed up wants his brother to be happy.
Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)"Match in the gas tank... Boom. Boom."This movie belongs to three actors. Personally I think Di Caprio deserves the Oscar that year. Taking nothing away from Tommy Lee Jones (an actor I like) in The Fugitive, but I think he was the least deserving that year. amongst some great nominees. Depp (with a gingerish hair do) is the movies emotional core and continues to be great. His face and eyes are so expressive. And finally Darlene Cates as Gilbert's obese mother.Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Kevin Tighe and John C Rielly are all good but the movie belongs to those 3.It's a slow burner and I can see why it's not for everyone, but I enjoy think it's great. No over use of CGI or special effects at all. No gun fights or chases. Just wonderful performances telling a story.What's Eating Gilbert Grape recieved good reviews and Di Caprio was nominated for an Oscar, but the movie only grossed $10 million at the domestic box office, not landing a place on the top 100 highest grossing movie of the year.
After his father's death, Gilbert has to care for his mentally disabled brother, Arnie, and his morbidly obese mother, which is suddenly challenged when love walks into his life.I remember seeing this one in my mid-20s... the Heart-Breaking Story is still with me... this one is a tear jerker.9/10
If you want to see DiCaprio at his best, this is the film to see! As many times as I watch it, his portrayal of Arnie, a retarded soon to be 18 year old boy, never ceases to amaze me! His performance is captivating. DiCaprio becomes Arnie. This film is an extremely touching story of family loyalty, albeit dysfunctional family loyalty. The title character is played exceptionally well by Johnny Depp, but it is difficult to focus on anyone but Leonardo DiCaprio. The best scenes in the film are those between Depp and DiCaprio. Gilbert is Arnie's primary caretaker. His love for Arnie is undeniable but marred by frustration and on occasion, resentment that he has been saddled with the burden of being his brother's keeper.But for most of the movie Depp plays a kind of straight man to DiCaprio's goofball antics. They have a wonderful chemistry together, for not only do they mine some restrained comedy from these scenes, but they also ably portray a strong brotherly bond. Gilbert will care for Arnie till the day he dies; Arnie loves and trusts Gilbert, even if he has not the mental capacity to understand why. This is the most carefully crafted film I've ever seen. Every scene, almost every line, reinforces the theme and illuminates the main characters' motivations. In my opinion, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is as nearly perfect as play writing gets.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
