This movie is good. It has a star-studded lineup and a compelling story that makes you laugh and cry as well as feel pity and anger. I didn't know until about an hour ago that this movie failed to make it's relatively small budget back.
Recognize any of those faces? Well that is a quite young Leo DiCaprio before he started to lecture everyone on environmental decay from his private jet. He has an unusual role in this film and he nailed it. This film resulted in his first Academy Award nomination and well, i think a win for this role would have been better than The Revenant.
Johnny Depp plays Gilbert Grape, a young fella who has a lot of responsibility since his father died. He is "the man of the family" (are we allowed to say that anymore?) and he, with the help of his sisters, has to financially and emotionally look after his extremely fat mother, and Arnie (Leo DiCaprio) who is mentally "challenged."
Gilbert wants a regular life, particularly after meeting Becky, a girl who was just passing through and they like eachother but a romance is too difficult to start because of all the responsibilities that Gilbert has in his life.
I don't feel I am selling this one so well. However this is because there are some major aspects of the movie that you will encounter if you choose to watch it that well, i don't want to spoil for you.
The only problem some viewers might have with this is that there really isn't much story there so much as it is just an unusual family with some very real issues. In that regard it can be seen as a bit slow. However, the acting that takes place between Johnny and Leo is top drawer and unless someone wants to prove me wrong it is the only time they have ever been in a film together. Although i don't generally rate films like this very high, I believe this one deserves it and is one of the few films that I think Leo was worth what they paid him.