There is an entire school of analysis dedicated to the proposition that all stories are driven by a central question which, once answered, renders the story useless. If this were true, 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape would be pointless after the first ten minutes. Happily, that’s not the way this story works, and this terrific film not only holds up after it answers its own question, but remains fascinating and rewarding at each viewing.

Main Characters
Gilbert Grape - Johnny Depp ( From Hell, Edward Scissorhands)
Arnie Grape - Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Basketball Diaries)
Becky - Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers, Cape Fear )
Momma Bonnie Grape - Darlene Cates
Betty Carver - Mary Steenburgen (Parenthood, Back to the Future III)
Tucker Van Dyke - John C. Reilly (The Perfect Storm, Boogie Nights)
Bobby McBurney - Crispin Glover (Bartleby, River’s Edge)
Amy Grape - Laura Harrington (Maximum Overdrive)
Ellen Grape - Mary Kate Schellhardt (Apollo 13)


Premise / Theme
Lots of things are “eating” Johnny Depp’s character, Gilbert Grape, in this movie, and we learn most of them early on, as Gilbert himself narrates the introduction. He lives with his mother, two sisters, and brother in a dilapidated house in a barren cornfield near the painfully small and dull town of Endora, Iowa. He works loyally at his stockboy job at the small local grocery, which is slowly being ground out of business by the giant Food Land supermarket nearby.

Gilbert’s younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio) is mentally challenged, and was expected to die in early childhood, but has beaten the odds so far and is about to turn 18 (“I could go at any time!” is one of his favorite expressions). It mostly falls on the ever-steadfast Gilbert to care for the unpredictable, hyper kinetic Arnie, which includes bathing him and safeguarding him from his curious predilection for climbing tall objects, notably the local water tower. The older of Gilbert’s sisters, Amy (Harrington) tries to help out, but seems to lack the energy, while teenaged Ellen (Schellhardt) is frustrated and embarrassed by Arnie, occasionally torturing him and mocking Gilbert. Gilbert’s Momma (Cates) has become paralyzed by depression and obesity after her husband’s suicide, and is trapped in the family home, both by her mental state and by her crushing 500-pound weight.

Sound like a “downer?” Weirdly, it’s not. Despite the hyperbolically depressing details, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is neither melodrama or dark comedy, but rather a bit of both that turns out to be something better. It’s not so much about the situation Gilbert finds himself in as it is his low-key, Zen-like way of accepting the almost surreal difficulties of his life, without angst or hysteria, bending without breaking, somehow continuing in spite of things, and yet still managing, when the time is right, to poke his head up and come to grips with things. Which is sometimes not only all you can do, but all you need.

Plot Synopsis
When we meet Gilbert, the family is preparing for Arnie’s 18th birthday party. Gilbert is taking care of Arnie, working in the grocery, and hanging out with his slightly-off buddies Bobby (Glover) who runs the local mortuary with his Dad, where he makes jokes about the corpses (“but not where anyone can hear”) and Tucker (O’Reilly) who dreams of climbing the “corporate ladder” of the much-anticipated Burger Barn restaurant soon to be shipped into town on its own flatbed truck. We later learn that Gilbert is having a lackadaisical affair with a bored middle-aged housewife, played by Mary Steenburgen. Whenever she calls the store for a “special order,” Gilbert shows up and “delivers the goods” with the same slightly tired, dutiful air in which he stamps prices on the baked beans. Life, it seems, is not all it could be for Gilbert.

His relationship with Arnie is something more, though. Although Arnie’s responses are those of a very young child, he and Gilbert share a special communication, and when Arnie joyfully scampers a hundred feet up the town water tower for what is apparently not the first, second, or even the tenth time, waving proudly at the gawkers, the understanding but increasingly impatient local police hand Gilbert the bullhorn so he can talk him down. Gilbert seems to register the giggles and rude looks of the townspeople, but is neither angry nor ashamed. Likewise, when the local kids press their dirty faces to the living room window to get a look at Momma Grape’s 500-pound bulk as the family gathers for dinner around the couch she can scarcely get up from, Gilbert calmly and resignedly shoos them away while Arnie laughs and scrubs his perpetually itchy and dirty nose and Gilbert’s sisters get angry.

When Gilbert notices the dangerously creaking floorboards and sifting sawdust under Momma’s seat, he and Tucker quietly reinforce the beams in the basement without telling anyone. It’s at this point when we see Gilbert’s strongest emotional reaction so far. He hesitates to go in the basement because, as we learn, this is where his father committed suicide several years before, hanging himself with apparently no warning, and initiating Momma’s decline. Up to then, Gilbert has seemed caring but somewhat emotionally detached, as though he is afraid to think too much about the family’s situation, lest it overwhelm him, and still, his reaction is almost imperceptible.

Things change a little though, when Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her grandmother roll into town in their silver Airstream trailer and get stuck while the pokey local mechanic sends off for a new needle valve for the carburetor. Becky is young and fun, and is a bit of a free spirit, roaming the country and going to all the places Gilbert has never been and has forgotten how to even dream about. She takes a liking to Arnie and Gilbert both, and a quiet little romance ensues, pushing Gilbert just far enough out of his rut to make a few things happen, starting with the inevitable disappointment of grocery-addict Mrs. Carver and leading to Gilbert’s eventual emotional reawakening. The end of the film, while touching and ultimately upbeat, does not purport to solve all of Gilbert's problems, but instead suggests that he and the Grapes have woken up somewhat from their dream-like state and will take a more active role in their own lives.

High Points
The film is all about tone. Lasse Hallstrom’s direction of Peter Hedges' novel could easily have been either sloppily sentimental or satirical and bleak, but it is neither. Beautifully shot on the plains of Texas-as-Iowa, the film shows the way the humor and pain of daily life can sometimes take on an almost absurd, dreamlike quality, where the best we can do is play along and try not to give into rage, cynicism, or self-indulgent depression, until those little moments come along where it’s no longer enough to keep our heads above water and we have to swim upstream (or maybe a little to the side?) for a bit.

The acting is superb all around. Johnny Depp has a wonderful ability to play a real person in a nearly unreal situation, and his artfully understated performance is largely internal, masterfully using small reactions to show what’s going on inside. He is the straight-man of the piece, while life itself gets the laughs. Nevetheless, DiCaprio nearly steals the show. His Oscar-nominated, Golden-Globe winning portrayal of Arnie is simply a revelation, and anyone who’s been turned off by some of his roles since Titanic made him a superstar (whatever that means) should take a look at this film and The Basketball Diaries and think again. He manages to show Arnie as simple-minded, but not oblivious, and sympathetic, but not pathetic. He neither overdoes it nor underdoes it; he just is Arnie, so much so that when the film came out, the then largely-unknown DiCaprio was assumed by many to actually be an actor with the same mental condition as the character, or so I have read.

There is one brief scene in particular, in which Gilbert apologizes to Arnie for losing his temper and hitting him, where Arnie puts Gilbert through the paces of a familiar game the two share, and then playfully hits him back, which says more, and with more feeling and authenticity, than an entire script full of dialogue ever could. Juliette Lewis has a smaller role, but she does a good job of showing her character’s instant understanding of both Gilbert and Arnie, and she fits in well with the slightly off-center feel of the film. The supporting cast is strong as well, notably O’Reilly’s offbeat turn as Tucker, and Darlene Cates as Momma Grape, whom author Peter Hedges reportedly cast after spotting her on a talk show discussing her weight problem.

Problems
In a few places I felt the film threatened to break out of its carefully crafted tone, becoming nearly melodramatic or satirical. After learning more about Gilbert, his comment in the opening narration that he sometimes wishes Arnie would die as doctors had expected seems out-of-place, as Gilbert’s character never seems that overtly bitter. And although I did enjoy John C. O’Reilly’s portrayal of Gilbert’s loyal but slightly askew friend Tucker, the whole “Burger Barn comes to town” thread seems too broadly comic and satirical as the whole town, complete with the high school marching band, joyously celebrates the opening of a single fast food restaurant. It's funny, but it took me out of the film for a while.

DVD features
None on the one I viewed, other than widescreen presentation, subtitles, and trailers. I’d be interested in a special edition with a commentary track with the writer, director, and actors, but I’m not holding my breath.

The Bottom Line
A really good movie, like really good music, is hard to pin down, refusing to fit neatly into the typical genres we see every day. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is neither a comedy nor a satire, nor a love story, nor a melodrama, although it has elements of all of these. It pokes fun at life without being mean-spirited, and sympathizes with its characters without gross sentimentality. It reminds us that life can be a strange, unsettling dream that is depressing and funny and happy and goofy all at once, and that we’ll never understand it, but if we hang in there and muddle through, and try to recognize those moments where maybe we can wake up a little and help things go our way, it can be pretty good.


Four Stars.

Special Thanks
to lynus for hosting this interesting, well-conceived write-off and inviting me to participate, to the one and only dedemw (hi, dededede!) for picking my flick, (and for mercifully, picking a great one) and to patiche for letting me pick hers.

Other participants in this write-off include the following brave souls. Check ‘em out.

lynus (host) * dedemw * jankp * shadow8 * food_critic * scigamer * mfunk75 * BigJack * KatM * jackai * susidee34 * d_Fienberg * gaelkm * thepremier* dragonfire88 *
MrsNormanMaine * Kristinafh * patiche * Stephen_Murray * cripper * artbyjude * skbreese * shaithis * Vormancian * jstlawrence * psychovant * danifilth * Pffrdfdus7
* granniemose * annecal * JackSommersby * Aruzenchin * cletta1201 * simply_crispy * tigger500 * darkmistress * lifestar * mark_dujsik * tjmackey * aliventiasylum


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older