WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE: Digesting The Importance Of Family

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) is a story of pure heart, testing the bonds of familial relationships and representing the importance of understanding the struggles of mental health, all while offering one of the truest tangible tales of pain, acceptance, and growth.

A testament to its title, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, directed by Lasse Hallström, is a creative and analytical film about Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp). The plot revolves around the development of his role within a dysfunctional family and what lengths Gilbert will take in a world that feels restricting.

Gilbert is a young man living in Enora, Iowa; a colourless town with an even more detached atmosphere than Gilbert’s bleak outlook on life. He has a job delivering groceries, maintains an affair with a married woman, and has a complicated life at home that often leaves him feeling strung out. Forced to take on the role of “man of the house” when his father commits suicide years prior, and with his mother struggling with obesity that leaves her bed-ridden, Gilbert takes ownership over his two sisters and wonderfully bright-eyed Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), his younger brother who has autism.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is classified as a coming-of-age drama, however, it deploys a stronger sense of sincerity and raw emotion than that of a more conventional film of this genre. Gilbert may be young, but it is a classic case of growing up too fast and not taking enough time to enjoy one’s youth and freedom. There is so much expected of Gilbert that he often loses sight of the bigger picture. Gilbert grows bored with his daily life. He faces a constant routine with his family and job, including coaxing Arnie down from water towers.

Gilbert is looking for some way to escape, if only for a little bit. When Becky (Juliette Lewis) comes to town in her RV, he finds a little blossom of colour that begins to spread. Her arrival sends energy into the film, distracting Gilbert from his worries and showing him how to enjoy the little things in life. As someone so fresh and new, like a blank slate, Becky entices Gilbert’s sense of adventure. It’s also apparent he’s is stuck in the same cycle and that a change is necessary to find a place of understanding.

Gilbert starts shedding layers of his reserved self, while still maintaining the qualities that make him a good brother. He breaks off the affair with Betty and pursues a relationship with Becky, who is extremely supportive and enjoys being around the Grape family, especially taking a liking to Arnie.

With Arnie’s birthday coming up, the Grape household is working hard to make it a great day for Arnie, as the doctors never thought he would live to his eighteenth year. This adds extra tension to the household so when Arnie eats his birthday cake too early, you can expect how their patience is tested.

Dynamic Duo: Depp and DiCaprio

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a captivating film with its plethora of raw and methodical characters. It’s both underrated by some and treasured by others for its delicate yet still invigorating style. The characters create a riveting display of reality. Aside from Depp’s days as a swashbuckling pirate from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, I personally enjoy the roles he portrays as a more soulful outsider with deeper morals. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a perfect example of a misfit perspective that Depp realistically draws on.

DiCaprio also takes earnest care in his portrayal of Arnie Grape. He’s is able to harness the wide range of Arnie’s purest emotions and put an eloquent effort into his lovable character. The actors work well together, demonstrating the bond depicted in the film, exuding the same strength of brotherhood.

Not only do Depp and DiCaprio deliver their roles extremely well, but these characters exhibit the growth and the depth to their relationship, which is demonstrated in the various scenes that place strain on their bond. Arnie and Gilbert may face turmoil and get tangled up in heated displays of aggression, yet they always come back around because of their immense love for one another.

Gilbert Grape’s Greatest Gift

Throughout the film, mental health plays as an overarching theme, offering the heart-wrenching truth behind the closed door of traumatic experiences and the borders of the human psyche. These struggles are embedded within the film in dark contrast to the dull town that the Grape family resides in.

Momma Grape (Darlene Cates), suffers from depression after the suicide of her husband and struggles with severe obesity that causes a multitude of health problems. She realizes the severity of her situation but tries to ignore it, instead, placing most of her attention on her children. Despite what may be perceived onscreen, Momma Grape is a truly resilient and loving mother who fiercely protects her family.

Arnie Grape, though never actually discussed within the film, displays classic autism with an abundance of chaotic mannerisms and bursts of emotions that can be stress-inducing to the family, yet not unfamiliar to their lifestyle. However, his presence in the family is ever constant and purposeful with elements of personal strength.

Lastly, Gilbert himself struggles with a buildup of weight upon his shoulders as he takes on the role of reverse parenting since the passing of his father. Because he takes this position seriously, it is thoroughly draining on a psychological level. While the intensity of the struggles with mental health is high, it is not altogether insurmountable. With the arrival of Becky and Gilbert’s newfound passion for more in life, his stone cut exterior cracks just enough to let some warmth and light back into the Grape household, making way for a new era of acceptance, breaking the stigma of mental health issues and focusing on reconnecting as a family.

Overall, there are some startling events that take place and without giving too much away, the film does keep one on their toes with these dramatic episodes. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape presents a dysfunctional family that functions in the best way they know how, showing true grit and compassion.

A key virtue to be gained from this film is recognizing the importance of support in times of need, especially pertaining to mental health. Though it takes dark twists and turns to an inevitable climax, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape will leave you feeling full and satisfied with a renewed sense of the value in family.

What other films that you like place vital importance on family in the midst of turmoil? Let us know in the comments below!

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