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What's Eating Gilbert Grape |
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What's Eating Gilbert Grape
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by Paramount
Sales Rank: 2348
Price: $14.20
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This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for, five years before <I>Titanic</I>. And, in fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström (<I>My Life as a Dog</I>), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his sisters. Not a lot happens--Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have started out as a TV teen idol on <I>21 Jump Street</I>, but his feature film choices since then--in such wonderfully offbeat and diverse movies as <I>Cry-Baby</I>, <I>Edward Scissorhands</I>, <I>Benny & Joon</I>, <I>Donnie Brasco</I>--have made him one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American movies. <I>--Jim Emerson</I>
Viewer Reviews
I recently saw an episode of the Fox cartoon "American Dad!" that has a parody of WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE using squirrels. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Well, so I felt at the time. That's what brought to my attention this great movie that I enjoyed all those years ago back in the 90s and several times since. A memory I have from back then is while hanging out telling a friend "his mom is eating him" and my friend just looking at me and his eyes widening like he just heard something profound. Makes me laugh just thinking about it now. Grape's morbidly obese mom is a problem along with his retarded brother Arnie that he has to look after. And it's that small town life isn't it? He wants to go. Leonardo Dicaprio is incredible -I mean I'm talking 100% convincing. I remember people saying they thought the person playing Arnie was actually mentally retarded. Needless to say this was before TITANIC. I always thought Dicaprio deserved an Oscar and just now read he was nominated. Leonardo Dicaprio will never top this performance. Genius actor Johnny Depp, great as always. Just another notch on his belt. Juliette Lewis is good as romantic interest Becky. Everyone did a fine job. Gilbert's mom is played by nonactor real life obese person Darlene Cates. It's one of my favorite movies when I think about it. Highly recommended!
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What's Eating Gilbert Grape
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