classicsoncall Review of What's Eating Gilbert Grape

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

"We've always had a reasonable deal on pickles."

[8/10 · 28 November 2014]

Until today, my impression of the movie's title was that it was asking a question. It never occurred to me that the story was in fact trying to answer one. For Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp), life is an imponderable existence, trapped as he is in a fatherless family with a mentally challenged younger brother (Leonardo DiCaprio), an obese mother (Darlene Cates) whose dimensions threaten the very foundation of their home, and a pair of sisters (Laura Harrington, Mary Kate Schellhardt) who find it difficult to maintain some semblance of normality in a community that considers the family a spectator attraction. But if you think about it, they might not have been the oddest characters living in Endora. The town also features a harmless joke mortician (Crispin Glover), a sad and lonely woman trapped in a loveless marriage (Mary Steenburgen), and a family friend (John C. Reilly) who insists that the soon to arrive Burger Barn is nothing short of cutting edge in the fast food industry. Into this mix arrives a free spirit angel (Juliette Lewis) who tries to help Gilbert realize his self proclaimed goal of being a good person. The film has it's absurd moments along with the bittersweet, and it was for that reason I found the marching band's choice of song to greet the Burger Barn as truly ironic - 'This Magic Moment'. By the time the picture is over, one realizes that even if our hero Gilbert has 'got nowhere to go', he's always been exactly where he needed to be.