Its an older movie with satire and irony in it. the story is centered around Gilbert who is the pseudo father of the family. his mother is... well... incredibly obese and he has to be a father for his retarded brother, Arnie, and he evil little sister, Ellen. The Pseudo mother is his other sister Anne (I think?) They live in a house built by the husband, who hung himself before the movie began, in the town of Endora. which the name itself kind of gives the image of a dying small town. My favorite character though is Bob the undertaker.
Yea, she was, as Gilbert said, "A Beached Whale." but the actor for "mama" was chosen for this movie because she was on a show called Maury. On the show she expressed her misgivings and said her life long dream was to be an actress. so thats why the makers of "Whats Eating Gilbert Grape" chose her.
This is one of the few movies I was in awe over Leonardo Dicaprio, and not surprisingly one of the many Johnny Depp films where he was astonishing. It truly is a great movie and a wonderful plot about the struggles life gives us, and the difficulty "normal" people go through to overcome them. A lot of movies nowadays portray an almost surreal perception of how drama in life is handled, but this one really captured the daily fights a person can have when the world around him is crashing.
I can't watch the movie anymore because it is unbelievably sad. It's one of those things that is too sad for me. The last time I watched it I was about twelve, and I was bawling almost hysterically. But it is a wonderful movie for anybody to watch.
I agree with BabyBlues in that this is a very sad movie, and very difficult to watch, as it covers a wide variety of disturbing issues. The movie itself is very well directed, and the cast of characters was chosen very well. Leonardo DiCaprio does an excellent job playing the younger brother of Gilbert, and Johnny Depp, as always, does a phenomenal job. Not a movie I would watch a lot because of how sad it is, but good nonetheless. 1