Amazon.com video review:
This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar
nomination for, five years before Titanic. And, in
fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good
in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book)
and directed by Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog),
this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape
(Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound
Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally
retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his
sisters. Not a lot happens--Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and
getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary
Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his
age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much
more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some
mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows
you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have
started out as a TV teen idol on 21 Jump Street, but his
feature film choices since then--in such wonderfully offbeat and
diverse movies as Cry-Baby, Edward
Scissorhands, Benny & Joon, Donnie
Brasco--have made him one of the most interesting,
unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American
movies. --Jim Emerson
