Benefit
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2002
- Messages
- 5,193
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a perennial classic from the 1990s.
Johnny Depp stars as Gilbert Grape, the man of the house (by default) of the dysfunctional Grape family. A retarded brother, an obese agoraphobic mother, a bratty adolescent sister struggling with puberty and a dead-end life in a dead-end town are what make up the central conflicts of Gilbert's life.
Depp is great. Leonardo DiCaprio has never been better than in this movie, where he plays soon-to-be-18-year-old Arnie Grape, the retarded kid brother who likes to climb the water tower. There are a few times where he kind of falls out of character, but it's a pretty good acting job, definitely better than any of the other garbage he's ever turned out. Juliette Lewis is quite good; her performance as Becky, the life-changing catalyst who falls into Gilbert's life by sheer accident, is very relaxed and the character is likeable and pleasantly offbeat. Darlene Cates plays the obese Grape matriarch who hasn't left the house in 7 years (since her husband, apparently unable to hack life as a Grape, hung himself in the basement).
The secondary characters are superb. John C. Riley and Crispin Glover play Gilbert's town buddies; the first is a handyman turned Burger Barn employee, and the second is an undertaker. They are strange and quirky and hilarious and well acted. Mary Steenburgen plays the lonely housewife who always needs a "delivery" from Gilbert. She's sexy, sad and seductive. Perfect.
Interestingly, Darlene Cates is, in real life, a 500 pound woman. It's not an actor wearing a fat suit; they actually recruited a morbidly obese woman to play this part. In a lot of ways, this woman (real and fictional) is disgusting and revolting. The movie tries to reveal her warmth, her human qualities; it is obvious she loves and cares for her children, that she is a sensitive person who is ashamed of her appearance yet unable to reverse it (it is claimed that she used to be beautiful). Personally, I found the character unlikeable and rather pathetic. She degenerated into a huge burden (emotionally and physically) and then hung the responsibility of caring for her on her helpless children.
The crushing weight of this responsibility on Gilbert's shoulders is the focus of the movie. Will he escape it? Will he follow in his Dad's footsteps? However, the real heart and soul of the film is the relationship between Arnie and Gilbert.
Gilbert: "Doctor said we'd be lucky if Arnie lived to be 10. Well, 10 came and went and now the doctors are saying anytime now. Arnie could go at anytime. Some days you want him to live, some days you don't."
Gilbert loves Arnie, but can you ask a young man to sacrifice his youth to give full-time care to his brother? It's beautiful and touching and poignant and sad. The casting for this movie is so perfect, I think that's what makes it work. You really feel for everyone, and they all seem stuck. I don't know quite how to describe it, the movie just tugs at the heartstrings. It's a beautiful slice of the 1990s.
Johnny Depp stars as Gilbert Grape, the man of the house (by default) of the dysfunctional Grape family. A retarded brother, an obese agoraphobic mother, a bratty adolescent sister struggling with puberty and a dead-end life in a dead-end town are what make up the central conflicts of Gilbert's life.
Depp is great. Leonardo DiCaprio has never been better than in this movie, where he plays soon-to-be-18-year-old Arnie Grape, the retarded kid brother who likes to climb the water tower. There are a few times where he kind of falls out of character, but it's a pretty good acting job, definitely better than any of the other garbage he's ever turned out. Juliette Lewis is quite good; her performance as Becky, the life-changing catalyst who falls into Gilbert's life by sheer accident, is very relaxed and the character is likeable and pleasantly offbeat. Darlene Cates plays the obese Grape matriarch who hasn't left the house in 7 years (since her husband, apparently unable to hack life as a Grape, hung himself in the basement).
The secondary characters are superb. John C. Riley and Crispin Glover play Gilbert's town buddies; the first is a handyman turned Burger Barn employee, and the second is an undertaker. They are strange and quirky and hilarious and well acted. Mary Steenburgen plays the lonely housewife who always needs a "delivery" from Gilbert. She's sexy, sad and seductive. Perfect.
Interestingly, Darlene Cates is, in real life, a 500 pound woman. It's not an actor wearing a fat suit; they actually recruited a morbidly obese woman to play this part. In a lot of ways, this woman (real and fictional) is disgusting and revolting. The movie tries to reveal her warmth, her human qualities; it is obvious she loves and cares for her children, that she is a sensitive person who is ashamed of her appearance yet unable to reverse it (it is claimed that she used to be beautiful). Personally, I found the character unlikeable and rather pathetic. She degenerated into a huge burden (emotionally and physically) and then hung the responsibility of caring for her on her helpless children.
The crushing weight of this responsibility on Gilbert's shoulders is the focus of the movie. Will he escape it? Will he follow in his Dad's footsteps? However, the real heart and soul of the film is the relationship between Arnie and Gilbert.
Gilbert: "Doctor said we'd be lucky if Arnie lived to be 10. Well, 10 came and went and now the doctors are saying anytime now. Arnie could go at anytime. Some days you want him to live, some days you don't."
Gilbert loves Arnie, but can you ask a young man to sacrifice his youth to give full-time care to his brother? It's beautiful and touching and poignant and sad. The casting for this movie is so perfect, I think that's what makes it work. You really feel for everyone, and they all seem stuck. I don't know quite how to describe it, the movie just tugs at the heartstrings. It's a beautiful slice of the 1990s.
