Wife and I decided to experiment on Netflix with one neither of us had seen in the theater: "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" with Johnny Depp and a verrrry young Leo Decaprio. An excellent film, I thought, and the wife agreed.
Truth to tell, I had always thought this movie must have been one of those animated things, sorta along the "Roger Rabbit" line. I mean, who names a character Gilbert Grape?
But it turned out to be an intriguing film that holds your attention. Depp ("Gilbert") is trying to keep his family together following the suicide of the father and the ballooning of his mother to several hundred pounds as she grieves and refuses to leave the house. Decaprio plays a mentally-challenged youngster, Gilbert's younger brother, and you just know throughout the film that something terrible is going to happen to him, because his condition makes him impulsive and risk-taking, and I think you'll be surprised by the resolution of that part of the plot. It's set in small-town America, in a place in Iowa I believe, where the plight of the Grapes is well-known but still a subject of some snickering and cruelty. I liked the way the plot resolved, believably and satisfyingly but with a twist that seemed just right for the movie.
Eight on the 1 to 10 scale.
Christian Bale
