Review of What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) by Uttiyo S — 03 Jun 2013

Whats Eating Gilbert Grape- 8/10.

What was eating through the head of Gilbert Grape? That's what you ask yourself throughout the movie and probably get some answers at the end of this movie, and some heart-wrenching and heart-warming performences aid to the intense and emotion-filled Whats Eating Gilbert Grape which is presented superbly by the director. Intense, heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time and aided by some brilliant performences especially by Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, a brilliant story about the harsh-realities of life, and a superb presentation by Director Lasse Hailstorm who have made a simple yet intense movie which fills the audience with different kind of emotion throughout the film and with a story simple yet brilliantly presented about the harsh realities of the life of our protagonist, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape is a great film showing the difficulties and harsh realities of the life of our protagonist and some solid performences by Depp and DiCaprio ensure that the audience is filled with different kinds of emotion throughout this wonderful yet heart-wrenching film.

Whats Eating Gilbert Grape is based on a novel written by Peter Hedges and is based around the world and daily activities of Gilbert Grape, who is the elder brother of two of his family and must take care of his difficulty-striken family consisting of a mentally challenged brother Arnie Grape( Leo DiCaprio) who is about to have his 18th birthday and due to his mental state, Gilbert must be the one who is almost like a father figure to him and must take care of his brother. Gilbert's mother Bonnie( Darlene Cates) is an obese as she has'nt left her house in 7 years and after the death of her husband, she has broken down and only stays at home doing nothing. This movie mostly shows the difficulty that Gilbert has to go through in his life, handling his mentally challenged brother, taking care of his family and also earning money for there well-being and his patience and ability to take care of his help-less family without losing his own mind.

The Acting Cast is very well chosen and handled by the director which enables them to portray each character perfectly and even though some of them are relatively unknown, they still manage to give amazing performences which is likethe heart of the film which keeps the audience glued to the movie. Johnny Depp is reknown for his ability to woo people with his performences and he has yet again shown that he is capable of portraying every character presented to him to the finest in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape that too in such a young age, portraying the protagonist Gilbert Grape and his ability to portray this intense role as a lonesome guy who is the depending factor of his family perfectly really mesmerized me and yet again he proved why he is such a versatile actor and why he is loved so much by many people. Considering that he was quite young and inexperienced as an actor at the time of the movie, all credits goes to him for perfectly this difficult role and this was a building block of his glittering career. Whenever in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape you think that Depp has given the best performance, in comes a young Leonardo DiCaprio as Arnie Grape, the mentally challenged brother of Gilbert and his acting in this movie is so heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time, and with that slight tinges of comedy at times, you really love and feel pity for his character. This movie was a building block for the young DiCaprio's career as well and all credit goes to him for perfecting this quite difficult character.His and Depp's chemistry is so good that you find it hard to believe that they are'nt related by any means, and all credits goes to them as well as the directors for doing so brilliantly with these difficult characters. Although these two are the stars of the movie, Darlene Cates did a brilliant job in a difficult role of the obese mother in the family, and although some of the sequences shown with her are quite rude and a bit illogical, you feel pity and sad for this character and all credit to Darlene for perfecting the character. Juliette Lewis also does a great job as the helpful Becky who helps Gilbert with his life, and the sisters of Gilbert Amy Grape( Laura Harrington) and Ellen Grape(Mary Kate Schellhardt) also did a great job ensuring that the boy's are'nt the only one's who get credit for the movie.

Director Lasse Hailstorm has made a really brilliant dramatic movie which brings out various emotions from the audience during the course of the movie, and he has done brilliantly with all the different departments of the film and in course made a really brilliant movie. He has especially done a terrific job in handling two very young actors in Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio and in turn by giving them the opportunity to portray these characters, he made the perfect decision as they have done superbly with the characters and almost seemed like brothers throughout the movie. He handled his cast brilliantly and especially letting Depp and DiCaprio act in there own way, he made a brilliant movie which set up there careers. He also did a very convincing job with the technical aspects of the film and the music which were quite great and really helped in creating the atmosphere for the sequences of the film. He also did a brilliant job with the story and he made a movie which brings in changing in emotions of the audience and through this intense, heart-breaking and heart-warming movie he has made a really brilliant dramatic movie showcasing the harsh-realities of life and how one can overcome difficulties of one's life.

The Screenplay which is also written by Peter Hedges is really well shaped up and although I thought the movie was a bit-streched and a bit illogical at times, the characters are really well presented and the dialogues in the movie are really touching as well. The Script is a unique one and it showcases the difficulties in the life of Gilbert Grape and how he overcomes them and takes care of his helpless family in a happy manner, and you also like a bit of realism in movies. The Story is really well presented and shaped by the director and he really brings out the most of the characters and actors, and he makes the audience change emotions and stick to the movie, so credits to Peter Hedges as well as Director Lasse Hailstorm for making really vital and huge contributions to the film.

The Visual aspects and the technical aspects of the movie are spot on as well, as the cinematography is of top notch with all those sequences in the outskirts area's and the camera-work in some of sequences in the movie are really well done which enables the movie to excel on the visual aspects too and all credits goes to cineamatographer Sven Nykvist deserves his share of praise for providing top class camera work in the film. The Art direction was also brilliantly done as the area's showcased in the film are really visually stunning and the art direction team also deserves its share of praise for choosing superb scenery for such a grim movie. The Background music of the film is really smoothing and really relaxes you're mind, especially the starting music was really wonderful for me and the music really creates the right kind of atmosphere for the sequences so all credit goes to music director's Alan Parker and Bjorn Isfalt have done a really good job in delivering the background music of the movie and ensuring that it does not fail on the technical aspects.

Whats Eating Gilbert Grape is an intense movie which will be sure to bring out different kinds of emotion from the audience, and due to some brilliant performences especially by the amazing pair of Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, a really great story about the harsh realities of life and the difficulties in the life of Grape, and all these are brilliantly topped off by some superb presentation by Director Lasse Hailstorm who makes a really brilliant dramatic movie which is heart-breaking yet heart-warming at the same time.