Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I rewatched What’s Eating Gilbert Grape last week because I wanted to see Kevin Tighe.

In my searchings I had read a comment by Kevin Tighe about the projects he chooses. He likes to work on things that mean something. He doesn’t just want to do a movie for the sake of keeping his name in lights. I feel for this attitude even though he sounded a bit discouraged. I also watched this film in the middle of my own personal Emergency film fest. On Emergency, Kevin Tighe plays the affable, ever patient Roy DeSoto. I’m comfortable with Roy, so the transition to Kenneth Carver was just plain disturbing. And he’s only a secondary character.

Gilbert Grape is trapped in the small town of Eudora, Iowa. His father committed suicide and his mother became an over-eating recluse. He has 2 sisters, a retarded brother, and a house he’s responsible for. He doesn’t seem to realize in the beginning, that what he really wants is OUT. He’s a stock boy at a grocery store that’s slowly being driven out of business; he’s having an affair with a married woman who’s husband may or may not suspect something; one of his best friends is a mortician and the other’s biggest dream is to run the grill at the new fast food joint that’s coming to town. How better can you spell trapped?

And then Becky arrives. Becky has lived everywhere and is currently traveling around the country with her grandmother. She is Freedom.

The acting is wonderful. Johnny Depp has always been good, he’s just cursed to be really cute too. Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t become famous yet, so he’s still trying and not coasting on his name. Juliette Lewis is fine. She always seems to be the same girl anyway (even in Natural Born Killers.) Kevin Tighe freaked me out completely by being slightly nuts and completely understandable at the same time. Everyone played their parts convincingly.

While you can sort of figure out where this is headed, you can’t see the stops or the forks in the road. I watch things looking for plot holes and any time I can get lost in the story enough to stop looking I count it as a victory. The day of Gilbert’s snapping point I wasn’t watching to see the tension build or predicting what was coming next, I was sitting on the couch groaning as calamity piled on calamity.

Teenagers will over identify with this movie believing themselves to be Gilbert no matter their circumstances so I don’t know if I’d want to show it to them. Teenagers have enough movies made for them. But sit back and enjoy it yourself because I’m sure you might identify with Gilbert, but hopefully not with Kenneth Carver.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older