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What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) inherits the role of man-of-the-house from his father and now his bedridden mother, bratty and selfish sister, and mentally handicapped younger brother, Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), as well as the grocery store where he works and the attention-starved married woman he’s having a fling with, all depend on him for support. Everyday it's something ... either his brother has climbed up the water tower again or the grocery store where he works is losing business to the brand-new supermarket in town. When a young girl, Becky (Juliette Lewis), passes through town because of camper trouble, however, Gilbert sees in her a means of escape from his life.

Throughout the rest of the movie, Gilbert finally discovers a goal: to win Becky’s heart and to make a life with her instead of coping with the one he’s been handed. When Becky and her mother ask him to fix their broken camper, he goes as far as to make sure it stays broken, so that Becky can stay with him. As a result, Becky sticks around to give Gilbert a new, uplifting perspective on life, to develop a patient, endearing bond with Arnie and to eventually accept Gilbert’s morbidly-obese and bedridden mother.

The central focuses of the story are Gilbert’s relationships with Arnie, Becky, his mother, and his father, who took a different approach to the life Gilbert is currently living, by killing himself in the basement. Throughout the movie hangs the memory of him; Gilbert refers to him as the member of their family that "got away."

Arnie seems to personify the concept of a dysfunctional family and Gilbert speaks for all of us when one day he’s just too tired and distracted to stay and give him a bath. Instead, he tells Arnie that he’s a big boy and that he can give himself a bath. Gilbert leaves home to see Becky, only to come back the next morning to find Arnie still in the bathtub.

Darlene Cates’ brutally honest and very real performance as Gilbert’s obese mother strikes in the audience an uncertainty between sympathy and disgust, although Gilbert continually reminds us that "she used to be so beautiful."

In a touching tale reminiscent of Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie, a young man has to choose between his own dream to leave home and his duty to his family. Johnny Depp plays a sad-eyed, deadpan and weary Gilbert that immediately draws sympathy, and DiCaprio's Oscar-nominated performance displays him in his best, and probably most overlooked, role. Juliette Lewis, as a dreamy, poetic nomad of a girl enchants us just as she enchants Gilbert and causes in him a final proposal: will he stay with the people who need him most or escape before his life passes him by?

Written by: Savannah Bobo

Reviewers Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 7.80
Reader's Votes: 52

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