Throwback Thursday What's Eating Gilbert Grape

What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Starring: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Juilette Lewis
Released: 1993
Box Office Gross: $9,170,214 (USA)
Throwback Review

After watching director Lasse Hallstrom's latest work (Safe Haven - check out a review by Don't Sit Next To Us here) I wanted a refresher on his previous good work. And with that criteria in mind, I came across What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

The film stars Depp as the title character, who lives in a small town in Iowa with his family including two sisters, a mentally challenged younger brother, Arnie (DiCaprio) and a morbidly obese mother, Bonnie. Gilbert's father committed suicide several years earlier, leaving the family in a less than ideal financial situation and Bonnie battling depression and unable to care for herself or the family. Gilbert has taken responsibility of Arnie and fixing the family's farmhouse all while working at the local grocery store.

Adding to Gilbert's woes are his secret love affair with a housewife (Mary Steenburgen) and a new supermarket chain that has opened in the small town, that threatens to make all the local businesses, including the grocery store where Gilbert works, redundant. A young woman named Becky (Lewis) and her grandmother get stranded in town when their truck and trailer break down. Becky quickly becomes close with both Arnie and Gilbert, eventually engaging in a romance with the older Grape brother.

Gilbert struggles to embrace a private life while dealing with his family's overbearing needs.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a character film at its finest. You get two for the price of one with this film: a performance by Depp that solidifies his status as an A-list actor and a star-making performance by a young, relatively unknown DiCaprio. And surrounding these two strong performances is a supporting cast that holds their own as the dysfunctional family and townspeople in Gilbert's life.

Depp manages to easily command and steer the film with his meek and endearing performance as the lead character. This is the Depp that we need to see to be reminded that he is an actor with some serious talent. There's not much in terms of plot line for Depp to work with, but there is tones of character development and he takes all that he can of the troubled Gilbert and runs with it. Not many actors these days could deal with this amount of character development and still turn out a critically acclaimed performance.

Speaking of critically acclaimed performances, the role of Arnie Grape gave DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination (Best Actor in a Supporting Role). As the mentally challenged young Grape brother, DiCaprio shone brightly in this film. It was no easy part, and DiCaprio sure made it look effortless. He took you on an emotional rollercoaster with this role: at one point you're smiling and laughing with Arnie as he's playing with his siblings, the next you're crying alongside him when he's being reprimanded by Gilbert. His dedication to the character paid off in spades; he began receiving lead roles soon after this film was released and soon Leo-mania was upon us.

Final Verdict: See it. A must in my opinion. Although the plot is fairly predictable, the performances more than make up for it. It's amazing to see the chemistry between Depp and DiCaprio and it makes me wonder if there is a film that could handle this pairing again. We can only hope someone will be brave enough to tackle that feat. (Burton, Scorcese...Tarantino??? I'm looking at you!)

Rotten Tomatoes