What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Rating:
Summary: Depp shows depth
Review: What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a wonderful portrait of an American family that is slightly dysfunctional on many levels with each member dealing with it in their own ways. Never have I seen Leonardo DiCapprio in such a well acted part as Arnie, who is a retarded teenager and brother to Johnny Depp's title role. Leonardo certainly should have taken home the Oscar for which he was nominated as best supporting actor for this part. His performance was flawless in everyway. Johnny Depp shows great depth of character as a young man who finds himself the head of a family consisting of two sisters, the youngest of whom is a thorn in his side, a 500 pound mother who barely functions, and his retarded brother (DiCapprio). Living and working in a small town with no hope of escape from a difficult life, Depp has turned to an affair with a married woman for diversion but begins to feel devoured even by that. A breath of fresh air blows into town in the person of a girl who is just passing through but lingers long enough to stir up a spark of real life and hope in this previously hopeless extistance and Gilbert(Depp) fights to hang on to that spark. Though there is heartache, embarrassment, and tragedy in this movie, it has an uplifting resolution. The entiire cast is great and very believable. Depp is deep and DiCapprio is brilliant. Even if you don't like either of these actors, this movie is a must see because it is truly fine art. Missing it would be like going to the Louvre and not viewing the Mona Lisa.

Rating:
Summary: BEWARE OF REVIEW TITLED "NICE THRILLER"
Review: First let me say that I am not a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio at all. You can actually say that I specifically avoid movies that he is in because I ussualy don't like the types of movies that he is in. Even I have to admit though that this movie is one of my all time favorites. The portrayal of all of the charectors in this movie and their quirks are incredible. In books, you hope that the charector devepment will do the charectors justice by the end of the book. In movies, you just hope for any charector development at all. In this movie though, the charector development does the charectors more than justice, it's incredible. It's fascinating to watch each charector from start to finish and DiCaprio's portrayal of a mentally challenged young man was absultely fantastic. A great movie for all. If you haven't seen this movie, trust me- you must!!

Rating:
Summary: Draining, but amazing
Review: When I saw this movie, I didn't realize that DiCaprio was the same kid from the Kirk Cameron show.... he was so convincing that I honestly thought, "Wow, they really got this retarded kid to perform well." So yes, I loved his performance. Johnny Depp - I liked him in this movie, but felt that his part was lacking something. Perhaps that is just the poignant lifelessness of his character. Watch this movie with a lot of chocolate; it is sadly frustrating.

Rating:
Summary: A good drama in serious need of a better dvd.
Review: This one was a surprise. When a movie has Johnny Depp and Leonard DiCaprio as the main characters, you really don't know what to expect. Johnny more or less plays the same character in every movie, and Leo's always there as bait for teen girls. But I went into this one mostly just out of the fact that Crispin Hellion Glover has a part in it. And while his performance is great as usual, the rest of the movie was good as well. And for once, I wasn't mad watching Johnny and Leo do the same thing over and over.

The movie starts out with Gilbert and Arnie sitting near the road, waiting for the cars with trailers to pull into town. This has become a family tradition, and we see that Arnie isn't exactly "normal". He's mentally handicapped, and causing Gilbert pain at times. Gilbert loves him and all, but of course, there are times when he just wishes things were "normal". At home, things are just as bad. His mother's obese and almost incapable of leaving home. Their dad hung himself in the basement years before. And their two sisters are trying their hardest to help out. It's not a very happy household, and I'm sure many people can relate to this part. Gilbert's two good friends are a little odd as well- Tucker is an electrician/handyman with hopes of working at an upcoming fast food place: Burger Barn, and Bobby deals with dead bodies. Oh Crispin...no matter what you do, it's perfect. Bobby is a great character, constantly talking about death even in the most unusual locations...like an ice cream parlor. Gilbert also has even more troubles with work. Working in a small grocery store that's losing its business to a much larger store with better selection, and he makes deliveries to a woman who cheats on her husband with him. Jesus, what isn't this guy doing? Soon though, he meets a girl- Becky, who makes him feel better about his life and is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise depressing era for the young man. Even with Arnie being difficult at times by climbing a water tower on a regular basis, the house's foundation giving in due to Gilbert's mom, and the worries of what his boss would do if he ever saw Gilbert shopping from the other store...she helps him pull through. But there are still a few serious issues that need to be dealt with before he can live a peaceful life. And just what is eating Gilbert Grape? While it may not be that meaningful when we first hear it, it's when Arnie says "We're not going anywhere!" over and over. Gilbert gets a far away look on his face, and it's then that we realize that he's worried of that really happening.

At times, What's Eating Gilbert Grape seems like a "feel good movie". I never stopped caring about the characters, and could see where they were all coming from regardless of the situation(s). When things get dark, a brief moment of hope emerges and makes the viewer feel better for a little bit. Johnny Depp actually does a good job here, and isn't the usual no-personality character he plays. He's smiling a lot, yelling, keeping his cool, and even results in a little rage here and there. Leo as Arnie...you know, any time someone plays a mentally handicapped person in a movie or show, they act like it's the best thing they've ever seen and should be nominated for an award. Yes, Leo did a good job, but it's not quite a defining role. What impressed me was how all the secondary characters have their own stories and realistic personalities. Of course, my prime example is Crispin's character of Bobby. When Gilbert comes back from a night with Becky, he goes "oh! You're alive!" and that just makes the scene golden. Plus it's neat to see him with a buzz cut. Even Tucker, the handyman gone fast food server is a nice touch. Because there really are people out there that would rather be doing that, and look forward to wearing a uniform for work. Regardless of what kind of work it is exactly. Yes, it's characters like these that you can get attached to and feel bad for when something unfortunate happens to them. Directors and writers should take this film as an example.

The picture and audio were nice, and there weren't any problems for me. For a movie with a lot of scenes outdoors, there wasn't a single scene where I needed to turn the volume up at a rediculous number, or turn on the captions/subtitles to hear what I missed. While sometimes the picture could be sharper, this is as good as we're going to get for a movie with (what I'm assuming had) a lower budget than most other movies that came out that year.

Now for the reason behind the 3 star review. There are no special features. None. Why isn't there a commentary track? A film like this screams for one. There aren't any deleted scenes, featurettes, interviews or anything like that either. It's a shame really. So I'll be holding off on buying it until I hear of a collector's or 2-disc edition. Sorry Crispin.

You could do a heck of a lot worse than Gilbert Grape. While it may not exactly be for the casual viewer who's expecting something where happiness is spoonfed to you, if you can appreciate life for what it is, and know how it really is, I'm sure you'll like this.

Rating:
Summary: Schmaltzy and predictable...
Review: ...but there are far worse movies out there.

Leonardo diCaprio does put in one of the best performances of his career while Johnny Depp plays, well, Johnny Depp and ditto Juliette Lewis.

This is one of those aw-shucks good-ole-small-town flicks though there are some noteworthy twists: Gilbert's mom is a massive whale of a woman after her husband hangs himself years ago, he lives in a crumbling house with his 2 sisters and retarded younger brother (diCaprio) and is having an affair with a desperate housewife (Mary Steenburgen). Lewis blows into town and predictably upsets Gilbert's precarious world, making him a bit restless with taking care of his retarded brother and bovine mother in this little one-horse town.

This is pretty commonplace melodramatic stock we've seen a million times before, barely rescued by diCaprio's strong performance and Depp's screen presence. What made it deeply unsatisfying for me, aside from its stock elements, is the fundamental lack of a PLOT---the main characters don't really DO anything, everything just HAPPENS to them. The whole storyline is basically held together by a string of fortuitous (and somewhat tragic) incidents...the implication perhaps being that if you just follow your heart and do the right thing (in this case, sticking by the retarded brother and disabled mother) sooner or later things will work out for the best.

Optimistic, but not very compelling film.

Rating:
Summary: Leonardo at his all time best
Review: If you've seen Titanic, but never seen "..Gilbert Grape" before, you are in for a shock. I give the performance by Leonardo as the best performance ever given by anyone, ever. I'm not kidding.

The movie is more of a drama than a comedy, though it has some very funny scenes. Johnny Depp plays Gilbert Grape and does a fantastic job of portraying a man held captive by responsibilities and love, yet wanting something more. This film captures "family" bonds in a way that few do.

But really, you must see Leonardo's performance as a retarded (or perhaps autistic) child, its unbelievably great. He almost received a best supporting actor oscar for this performance, and it was an oversight that Tommy Lee Jones got it instead.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie That Will Stick With You For Days!
Review: I had been wanting to see this film for a long time now and finally decided to rent it. This is a depressing yet powerful film of a young man, Gilbert Grape, trying to keep his crumbling world from crashing down by doing just enough to make everyone else happy without truly discovering himself. The acting is perfect, especially Johnny Depp (never fails to turn in a great performance) and Leonardo DiCaprio (my brother has Autism and I don't know how a young Leo pulled it off). This is a film about the characters that will grow on you as the story progresses and how hard life can be. Don't expect a fast moving movie or some interesting plot twists. This film takes it time to get its point across and I'm glad to have finally witnessed the message.

Rating:
Summary: Nice thriller.
Review: "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (Which was Johnny Depp's first film) is a great horror film about a grape salesman named Gilbert. One day, he's asked to deliver a bundle of grapes to the house of a morbidly obese woman. This turns out to be a HUGE (pun intended) mistake, as the obese woman uses the help of her retarded son (played by Leonardo Demaccio) to kidnap poor Gilbert. This is where the horror and gruesome images come to play.

I don't want to spoil this for anyone, but the obese woman (whose name is simply "Oprah the fat lady") eats a body part of Gilbert's everyday. Can the police find Gilbert in time before he's completely eaten? Get the movie to find out!