What's Eating Gilbert Grape Review
Extraordinary
His fans may love Leonardo DiCaprio best for his role as the scampy hero of a ship called Titanic, but I'll always know him best as a retard. DiCaprio's role as the severely autistic Arnie Grape -- a role which DiCaprio owned so wholly most moviegoers thought the then-unknown actor was truly retarded. He won a 1994 Oscar nomination, losing to Tommy Lee Jones' turn in The Fugitive, just one in a series of recent Oscar heresies.
So who's Gilbert Grape, and what's eating him? Gilbert (Johnny Depp, in another outstanding performance from the film) is the unofficial caretaker of the Grape clan, a rural Iowa family that includes the aforementioned Arnie, coming up on 18 years old, and the enormous Momma (Darlene Cates), a 500-pound woman who hasn't left the Grape house in nearly a decade. Taking care of Arnie and Momma is enough work for three people -- but sisters Ellen and Amy don't carry their weight, leaving Gilbert to do the heavy lifting (no pun intended).
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