Review of What`s Eating Gilbert Grape

Introduction

Directed by Lasse Hallström and written by Peter Hedges who adapted this from his own novel, `What`s Eating Gilbert Grape` is the story of a young man with far too many responsibilities for someone his age. He lives in Endora, a town that is slowly dying due to the huge out of town supermarket that is taking the business from the small general store where Gilbert works. Following the death of his father, Grape has assumed the patriarchal figure of his dysfunctional family: his gastropod of a mother, his bickering sisters and demanding and emotionally draining younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio) whose complex mental condition requires almost 24 hour supervision.

Arnie wasn`t expected to live past the age of ten, yet is now approaching his eighteenth birthday, preparations for which form the timescale for the film. As if Gilbert didn`t have enough on his plate, his affair with a bored housewife is now becoming more and more complicated as her demands increase. Gilbert is becoming more and more disillusioned and snowed under until the worldly wise Becky (Juliette Lewis) appears on the scene and opens his eyes to what may lie outside a town that wouldn`t even qualify for `one horse` status.

Marking the start the careers of both DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, `What`s Eating Gilbert Grape` now has a cult following.

Video

A disappointing 4:3 fullscreen transfer with a fair amount of softness and dirt, this is clearly a cheap DVD which has had no effort put into the video transfer at all. This is a shame as some of the cinematography is superb.

Audio

As with the video, the soundtrack doesn`t appear to have undergone any work to improve the clarity and I found the English HoH subtitles (the only ones available) extremely useful for the dialogue, which is far too quiet when compared to other aspects of the soundtrack.

Features

Nothing, unless a web-link is extremely important to you.

Conclusion

1993 was arguably the most important year in Leonardo DiCaprio`s career. He worked with Robert De Niro on `This Boy`s Life` and then teamed up with Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis in a role for which he was Oscar nominated. His portrayal of the mentally challenged Arnie is one of the finest of his career - easily comparable with Dustin Hoffman`s portrayal of Raymond Babbitt in `Rain Man` - and lends weight to the story that De Niro recommended DiCaprio to Martin Scorsese following their collaboration.

It`s strange that this vision of small town America should come from a Swede, Lasse Hallström but having never visited the US, I can`t vouch for the veracity of his whimsical portrayal. The only word that can really be used to describe `What`s Eating Gilbert Grape` is `quirky`, as the characters are more like caricatures and the story is slightly fantastic and unreal. Whether it`s the enormously obese mother, Juliette Lewis` character or John C. Reilly`s permanently upbeat handyman who dreams of working at `Burger Barn`, there is nothing normal about Endora or it`s population.

Hallström occasionally lapses into over-sentimentality and this, although not a great film, is worth watching if only for the performances of Depp and DiCaprio.