What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Released:  December 17^th, 1993

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  Paramount Pictures

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Crispin Glover, John C. Reilly, Darlene Cates

Directed by:  Lasse Hallström

Written by:  Peter Hedges

Personal Bias Alert:  from the countryside of America, values family

9 of 10

            American films are often criticized for getting the interior of the country wrong, and as a native of the Midwest, I must pipe up in agreement.  There are a smattering of movies that seem to understand the good and the bad of small town life, but most pander, representing us as wholesome, god-fearing folks that may not be the brightest but have their hearts in the right place.  The complexity of our makeup is lost, and uneducated becomes synonymous with unintelligent.  This couldn’t be further from the truth in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, a film written by an Iowan that seems hell-bent on dispelling these misconceptions.

            This immediacy is easy to miss in Gilbert Grape as it doesn’t rub it in your face like a city slicker might.  No, it goes about it in a quiet, methodical way, one that reminds me very much of sitting around with my dad and listening to one of his childhood stories.  It seems light and boring at first, but you slide into its protracted rhythm without realizing it, and soon you’re finding the quiet moments of humor, desire, and despair popping out in ways that seem impossible to miss.  You come to see that none of the people in Gilbert’s town are complacent.  Each brim with their own dreams and ambitions, things that gnaw away at them with the same ferocity as everyone else, even though their surroundings cultivate a feeling of sameness that beguiles the constant flux surrounding them.

            Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is the quintessential small-town young man.  He’s unobtrusive and loyal, spending every day bagging groceries at the local store and caring for his mentally handicapped brother.  He must seem like something out a fairytale to Juliette Lewis’s Becky, who becomes stranded when her trailer breaks down as she’s passing through his town.  The attraction between the two is instantaneous, but each regard the other with some trepidation.  Gilbert, whose duties to his brother and family are a 24/7 commitment, doesn’t have the time nor emotional energy to spend on a relationship, while Becky is hesitant to believe a man like Gilbert can really exist.  Her wariness is assuaged in one of the film’s best and most understated scenes, when she responds to Gilbert’s admission that he’ll miss a former lover with a mumbled “Good.”

            This scene, which revolves around Gilbert’s fling with an older, married woman, is also indicative of how well Gilbert Grape handles the flaws of its characters.  While everyone onscreen has dreams, they also have faults that they are never judged nor condemned for.  That’s not to say that there aren’t consequences for their mistakes; in fact, they often come in such a devastating fashion that the whole film has a twinge of tragedy, but at the same time each are treated with such kindness and understanding that you’re encouraged to view even the most frustrating characters with a humane eye.

            This reluctance to judge, along with the film’s decidedly understated nature, may feel like tedium at times, like you’re stuck in a loop of mumbled, pent-up emotions.  It’s a familiar tone for indies, but one that fits Gilbert and his town like a glove.  This isn’t a case of adherence to genre standards, but an accurate and true representation of characters that are brought to tender life by an excellent cast.  Of course, many things do change, most of which are inevitable but still horrendously upsetting.  In the climactic scene with Gilbert and his family, they make a decision they can never turn back from, and an insert shot reveals just how far they’ve all come.  Given the circumstances, they seem lucky to have made it there at all.

Other Notes:

Ø  There are, admittedly, some overwritten moments.

Ø  Gilbert’s struggle to be a good person is admirable and rarely seen in film.

Ø  “I haven’t always been like this, either.”