WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE is a delicate story which combines pathos and humor and which manages to avoid cliche while saying something about unsung nobility. Johnny Depp plays the modern equivalent of a Capra-esque hero. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
The American film industry has the capital resources to attract some of the best international directors to make what are essentially American films. Often these directors see the U.S. through the eyes of an outsider, and let the viewer see his own country with a fresh perspective. It is this sort of freshness that directors like Louis Malle bring to films like ATLANTIC CITY. Lasse Hallstrom, who made the charming MY LIFE AS A DOG about one character with low self-esteem, now has made an American film with an older, but similar character. In filming Peter Hedges screenplay based on Hedges's own novel he gives us his view of a very small American town and a sort of people who rarely are depicted in films.
The setting is the fly-speck town is Endora, Iowa (though WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE was actually shot in Texas). A major town event occurs each year when the local Airstream Trailer club drives a convoy of the aluminum campers past the town. Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) always brings his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (Oscar-nominated Leonardo DiCaprio) to watch the campers go by. Arnie is usually a real handful--nearly 18, he is a wild animal requiring constant attention. Among Arnie's distressing habits is climbing the town's water tower from which he needs to be rescued by the police. Gilbert has had to control Arnie and be the de facto father of the family since his own father committed suicide many years earlier. Gilbert's mother is hyper-obese--in the range of 500 pounds--and she too needs more care than she is able to give.
Gilbert himself is an unassuming man, a clerk at a tiny grocery that is dying from the competition of a huge supermarket nearby. Like a George Bailey in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, he is without realizing it the person on whom many depend and whom few seem to appreciate. Everyone seems to rely on him and take him for granted. On top of that he lets himself be used in an affair with a bored and unstable housewife (a thankless role for Mary Steenburgen). With the constant need to corral his brother, avoid the husband of the Steenburgen character, handle a sister jealous of attention given to Arnie, protect his mother from embarrassment by doing things like secretly reinforce the floor weakened by her weight, Gilbert gets little pleasure from life. Enter Becky (Juliette Lewis of CAPE FEAR and HUSBANDS AND WIVES) who is temporarily stranded in Endora when her grandmother's camper has engine trouble. Becky has a friendly but worldly nature that allows her to see the nobility in Gilbert that others overlook. While the ending is a false step, the rest of the film more than compensates.
WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE is a story that could easily have been mishandled by making Gilbert too sugary noble, but Hedges and Hallstrom create characters of depth and resonance. And he is able to get some impressive performances, especially from DiCaprio. In his films Depp has been a sort of modern James Dean who gets some sympathy from the audience playing hurt and confused people. But Depp's acting has never been the high point of any of his films. Here, at least, he is better than usual and creates a character with some credibility. But even better is DiCaprio whose retardation is so well portrayed my wife was unsure if perhaps DiCaprio himself isn't actually retarded. (Though some thought tells one it is extremely unlikely.) Darlene Cates, in her first performance, gives real humanity to the obese Momma.
WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE reminds one of settings like those of TENDER MERCIES and characters out of Capra. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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