What’s Eating Gilbert Grape Is One Of The Most Beautiful And Underrated Films Of The 1990s. Lasse Hallström’s 1993 Classic Is A Funny, Emotional And Honest Story About Family, Responsibility, Love And Trying To Find Your Own Way In Life.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is one of those movies that does not need a huge plot or constant action to keep you interested. It is a character driven story about ordinary people dealing with complicated lives, and that is exactly what makes it so powerful.
Johnny Depp stars as Gilbert Grape, a young man living in the small Iowa town of Endora. Gilbert spends most of his time taking care of his family and working at a local grocery store, but underneath his quiet personality is someone who feels trapped by responsibilities he never really chose for himself.
Gilbert’s family is at the center of the story. His younger brother Arnie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, has an intellectual disability and requires constant supervision. Their mother, Bonnie, played by Darlene Cates, has become extremely overweight and rarely leaves the house. Gilbert also has two sisters, Ellen and Amy, played by Mary Kate Schellhardt and Laura Harrington.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as Arnie is one of the major reasons this movie has become so memorable. He brings an enormous amount of energy and personality to the character, but the performance never feels like a cheap attempt to get an emotional reaction from the audience. DiCaprio was only nineteen when the movie was released, and he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
The cast also includes Juliette Lewis as Becky, a young woman who arrives in Endora with her grandmother and becomes an important part of Gilbert’s life. Becky sees something in Gilbert that he has trouble seeing in himself. Their relationship gives the movie some warmth and allows Gilbert to imagine that there might be a life waiting for him outside of his family’s problems.
Lasse Hallström directed the film, and his approach is one of the things that makes it work so well. He does not turn Endora into some exaggerated version of a miserable small town. Instead, the movie simply observes these people and lets their personalities, frustrations and relationships tell the story.
The plot is really about Gilbert trying to hold everything together. He is responsible for Arnie, worried about his mother and constantly dealing with the expectations of his family. At the same time, he is still a young man who wants to experience life for himself. That conflict gives the movie its emotional center.
What makes the story so effective is that Gilbert is not portrayed as someone who hates his family. He loves them. That is what makes his situation so difficult. You can love the people around you and still feel frustrated, exhausted and desperate for something different. The movie understands that those feelings can exist at the same time.
There is also plenty of humor throughout the film, which keeps the story from becoming overwhelmingly depressing. The Grape family is dysfunctional in plenty of ways, but they are still a family. Some of the funniest moments come naturally from their personalities and the strange little world they have created around themselves.
Then there is the relationship between Gilbert and Arnie. Gilbert can become frustrated with his brother, sometimes extremely frustrated, but there is always a deep sense of love underneath it. Their relationship is complicated in the way real family relationships are complicated, and that honesty is a big reason the movie feels so genuine.
Juliette Lewis also gives the film another dimension as Becky. She is not simply there to become Gilbert’s romantic interest. She represents freedom and possibility. She comes from outside Gilbert’s small world, and her presence gives him a reason to start thinking about what he actually wants from his own life.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is also a movie about small town life without making small towns the villain. Endora feels isolated, but it also feels familiar. The people know each other, routines become permanent and everyone seems to know everybody else’s business. Gilbert has spent so much time there that imagining another life becomes difficult.
The movie’s emotional moments work because the filmmakers earned them. Nothing feels like it was added simply to manipulate the audience. When the story finally reaches its most heartbreaking moments, you already understand these characters well enough for what happens to actually mean something.
For me, that is what separates What’s Eating Gilbert Grape from a lot of other dramas from the 1990s. It is not trying to be flashy or overly complicated. It simply tells a very human story with great performances and gives its characters enough room to feel like real people.
More than thirty years later, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape still holds up as a true classic. Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis and the rest of the cast give the film an incredible amount of heart, while Lasse Hallström keeps everything grounded and believable. It is funny, sad, uncomfortable and touching all at the same time, which is exactly why this is a movie I can watch again and still appreciate.
