WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE
A film review by Jon Webb
Copyright 1994 Jon Webb
WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE is a sensitive, honest portrayal of what would be called a "dysfunctional" family: grossly overweight mother, retarded son, two daughters trying to get past it all, and the older son, played by Johnny Depp, who is trying to hold everything together. The main point of the film is that such a family is not as dysfunctional as it seems, when you look below the surface.
The most outstanding things about this film are the performance by Leonardo di Caprio of the retarded son--had I not seen him in THIS BOY'S LIFE I would have thought he must be like that, somehow--and the portrayal of the mother in the screenplay and on the screen by Darlene Cates. I never have seen a woman with a physical deformity shown in as loving, though non-sentimental, a light. This alone is reason enough to see the film.
I thought the film was only good on the whole, though, because of inconsistent quality in the direction. The romance between Depp and Juliette Lewis was never completely convincing for me, and Mary Steenburgen's character was too cartoonish.
I liked the meeting between Gilbert and the insurance man, as being surprisingly real, and thought Crispin Glover stole every scene he was part of (he plays a too-enthusiastic mortician.) The resolution of the conflict in the film is also very believable and compelling.
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