What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

So much average

Memorable, crazy movie

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a very odd film. And while everyone in the cast does a good job, Leonardo DiCaprio stands out with one of the most convincing performances I've seen in a long time. At times, I forgot Arnie was the same guy from Inception. I probably won't make a habit of watching this movie, but I'm glad I finally saw it.

An American drama movie based on the novel of the same name by Peter HedgesSynopsis: Gilbert Grape lives at home with two of his three sisters, Amy and Ellen, and one of his two brothers, Arnie. Arnie is mentally handicapped and depends on Gilbert for a lot. Then there's Gilbert's momma. She also lives with them and is perfectly huge. She was once the prettiest girl in Endora but now...is not. The whole Grape clan is just counting the days to Arnie's 18th birthday. The birthday the doctors said he would never see. Here Johnny Depp acted as Gilber and what i think is he was the perfect actor for this character. And Leonardo DiCaprio acted as Arnie. Both of their acting was marvelous but Leonardo DiCaprio oh boy he has shown a masterpiece acting skill in this movie. This movie is the proof that how much good an actor he was to began with. In this one his acting was even better than The Basketball Diary (One of his early days hit movies) IMO. Gilbert's dad, Mr. Grape, has been dead for 17 years and with his older brother gone everything falls on Gilbert's shoulders. He worked so hard to keep his family from sinking. I was touched by his responsibility and care for his family and the loving relationship with his mentally challenged brother Arnie. Gilbert is simply the supreme character of this movie. A great movie. Great story, well directed. Sometimes it will make you laugh,sometimes it will make you emotional or even it will make you angry now and then. And at the end this movie made me cry.(No it isn't a tragic movie)Leonardo DiCaprio received his first Academy Award nomination for his role.

This movie is spectacular. The cutting edge of the dialogue is sharp and hits all the feels. The bareboned plot is part of the reason why this movie is so powerful. I may be one of those lame-os that's not got around to watching this until Leo won the Oscar, but I'm glad I came. Lots of people (probably people that haven't seen this movie) say that he should have won one for Titanic, but honestly he's infinitely more brilliant as Arnie Grape than as Jack Dawson. Titanic is like a game of pretend compared to this movie (no hate, I still love it). Also important to note, there's practically no other movie out there where intellectual disabilities are explored and treated with as much respect as it was treated in this movie. As much as you see the Grapes struggle with Arnie (occasionally physically) the way the writers, producers, and directors chose to portray Arnie as a character was fantastic. Cut scenes of him laughing and playing at the end of a tense scene. Treating him less as a sidekick and more as a secondary protagonist. It's so rare to see people with intellectual disabilities given the respect any other human being would get in the real world, let alone in pop culture. A+.Only critique I have is that the soundtrack is pretty lame. It went with the mood of the film pretty well, but like, it was kind of boring/not great.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is for sure an underrated picture,Johnny Depp does a competent enough job but because of his choice of playing Grape as a numb individual could have made the movie a real snooze, but Depp's performance is actually a plus in the movie thanks to the show stealer performance from young Leonardo Dicaprio as Arnie a mentally challenged kid in the most believable, and in my opinion, best performance of his entire career. I've seen this movie after all the other Dicaprio's movies and if it wasn't for this I would not be able to believe that Dicaprio himself wasn't a mentally challenged kid because he brings so much to the table in this movie in such a simple way. I'm glad that he got an Oscar nod over this, because without that nod I probably wouldn't even know that this movie existed. The remaining characters are competent as well. Not the best movie ever made, not a masterpiece in my opinion, but a solid story that excels because of Leo's performance.