Review of What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) by Lewis C — 05 Aug 2010

"What do you want for you? Just for you?".

Small town life can be complicated. Even more so for Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) than the rest of us. He has a annoying and immature younger sister, a morbidly obese mother, the shadow of his father's suicide still hangs over his family, he has a complicated relationship with an older, married woman, and there's a new girl (Juliette Lewis) in town who's full of experiences of life beyond the area where Gilbert feels he may be stuck forever. .

Added to all that, Gilbert has a younger brother (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is mentally handicapped, and who unintentionally provides challenges and additional stress for Gilbert and his family. So, what's eating Gilbert Grape? A lot.

I found the movie to be a pleasant surprise, even though I'm not typically into this sort of thing. Depp may not exactly fit his character physically, but as far as the acting goes, he was great. Genuine, expressive, and relatable. As were all the actors, especially DiCaprio. This is one of those movies where you can't help but sympathize with the characters, and even feel a lot of what they're feeling, yourself. The drama never becomes cloying or sappy, there are no artificial attempts to tug at your heartstrings, and as a result, the story feels refreshingly organic. I have no qualms about heartily recommending it.