What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

nTitle: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

nDirector: Lasse Hallstrom

nCast: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, JohnnC. Reily, Crispin Glover, Mary Steenburgen, Darlene Cates

nReview:

nWhat’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a film that talks about hownlife can be strange, beautiful and tragic all rolled into one and how sometimesnthere’s not much we can do about it. Sometimes, those are the cards we are dealtnand what’s left for us to do is just try and survive as best we can through itnwhile we are trying to make sense of it all. In this film we meet Gilbert Grape,na young man who’s lost his father, has an obese mother, two bitchy sisters and anmentally challenged brother called Arnie; so Gilbert doesn’t exactly enjoy a happynfamily life. It’s not that he doesn’t love his family, in fact; he is portrayednas someone who loves his entire family even though they sometimes drive himnnuts. He’s the kind of guy who’ll take care of everyone else before taking carenof himself. He forgets to make himself happy, but this is not entirely hisnfault, his brother Arnie takes up a lot of his time, Arnie needs Gilbert tonsurvive. So in a way, Gilbert is kind of like a male version of Amelie (2004),nyou remember that one? That’s the French film about a girl named Amelie, shenwould help everyone, but always forgot to make herself happy. She didn’t evennhave time to find love, until she made time for it. This film follows a similarnstructure. Gilbert is the ultimate do gooder.

nThis is the kind of film that’s all about small town life.nThe film takes place in a fictional town called ‘Endora’. Gilbert is alwaysncomplaining, saying how much he wants to leave Endora because not a whole lotnhappens there. If you ask me, I’d love to live there; the whole place is kindnof like a paradise? The entire film was beautifully shot in Texas, andnhonestly, it made me want to live there, it’s that kind of film, its locations arenso beautiful, you’ll wish you were there. But of course, the main characterntakes it for granted. I guess Gilbert wants out of Endora becausento him, Endora is well, the name of the town says it all, it’s End-ora. I guess Endora is representative of the quintessential dead end town. Wenalways want what we don’t got, the fat want to be skinny, the poor want to benrich, the rich want to know about common people…and Gilbert wants out of Endora.nI understand Gilbert though, I mean, here he is, in the prime of his youth andnhe is working in a local supermarket that’s on the brink of closing down.

nWhen Gilbert goes back home, he goes to a dysfunctional family,nnow here is the true reason for Gilbert’s unhappiness. He finds himself trappednwith taking care of his mother and his mentally challenged brother Arnie,nmasterfully played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Now here’s something you need to knownabout this movie, this is one of DiCaprio’s finest performances. It’s not anneasy thing to play a mentally challenged individual, when done wrong, it can gonhorribly wrong. An example of this is SeannPenn in I Am Sam (2001) a movie I despise because to me Sean Penn didn’t reallynsell me the performance; to me it looked like Penn simply playing ‘stupid’, not a convincing performance at all. But DiCaprio’s Arnie? Now we are talking!nNow here’s a convincing performance! To be honest, when this film first camenout in 1993, DiCaprio was just getting started in his career and I didn’t knownwho the hell he was yet. I actually thought they had used a mentally challengednactor to do this performance, it is that convincing!

nDiCaprio did extensive research for his performance, whichnis why it comes off as so believable; he actually spent some time in a home fornmentally challenged teenagers. DiCaprio’s performance did not go unnoticed; he wasnnominated for many awards that year, he was even nominated for an Academy Awardnin the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ category. Sadly, DiCaprio’s nomination was onenof those times when an actor should have won the Oscar but didn’t. You know,nlike that year in which Ellen Burstyn was nominated for her amazing performancenin Requiem for a Dream (2000) but ended up losing to Julia Roberts for hernperformance in Erin Brockovich (2000)? And you’re left saying “whaaaat?!” Well,nthat year, Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for playing Arnie, but lost to TommynLee Jones for his performance in The Fugitive (1993), can you believe it? Onenlook at DiCaprio on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and I’m sure you’ll agree withnme, it’s one of his best performances ever, truly memorable, he got me to feel for Arnie. I doubt you even remember Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive,nbut after seeing Arnie in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, I doubt you’ll forgetnthe performance. The chemistry between Arnie and Gilbert is great, loved seeingn Depp and DiCaprio performing together.

nBut then again all the performances on this film arenoutstanding in my book. Darlene Cates, the actress they chose to play Gilbert’snobese mother, she was chosen after Peter Hodges, the author of the book thenfilm is based on saw Cates appearance in an episode of the Sally Jessy Raphaelnshow. The show’s theme was “Too Heavy to Leave Their House”. Hodges saw a tapenof the show and immediately offered the role of Bonnie Grape to Mrs. Cates, whonaccepted. Now this was not an easy role to accept because it’s a role thatnwould address her real life obesity and the way that people react to it. Therenare many scenes where Momma goes out on the street and people stare at her ornmake fun of her as if she was some sort of freak. I’m sure it wasn’t easy fornher to film these scenes. To me, this actress is a brave soul for recognizingnher problem and not being afraid to address it through her performance. Deppnhimself apologized to the actress after filming some of his lines. So my hatsnoff to this fine actress, she actually got to me; she was completely vulnerablenand honest in her performance and that calls for appreciation.

nThe film is sprinkled with a great supporting cast. MarynSteenburgen plays the desperate housewife looking for some action with Gilbert.nJohn C. Reilly plays this guy who wants to open up a fast food franchise calledn“Burger Barn”; he swears it’s the best kind of food. That’s something else thenfilm touches upon, how big businesses are gulping up small ones. Then we havenCrispin Glover playing the town mortician, basically, it’s one of those moviesnthat is filled with all these characters that make up the town folk. Finally wenhave Juliette Lewis playing the role of a girl who travels across the UnitednStates on a camper with her grandma. When she and Gilbert meet, sparks fly. Shenoffers him something he’d been missing all his life, a breath of fresh air,nsome love and understanding. Juliette Lewis glows on this movie. So what we gotnhere is a bitter sweet movie filled with some wonderfully happy moments and somenterribly dark ones as well, kind of like life. It’s a film that teaches us tontake the good with the bad.

nRating: 5 out of 5
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