Director Lasse Halstrom and cinematographer Sven Nykvist do their best to disguise the predictability with their own grace notes. But all the music in the world can't hide a tone this false.
1 Comment
01/01/00
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
90
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Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:36
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.5/10
Synopsis: Bizarre, whimsical, and touching scenes mark WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE. Johnny Depp is Gilbert, the eldest brother in a large family of a very large (morbidly obese, actually) mother (Darlene... [More]
Starring: Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Leonardo DiCaprio
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Reviews for What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Top CriticThere is a good idea for a movie hiding here, but Halstrom has buried it beneath a load of charmless shtick.
01/01/00
Top CriticAn overrated film. DiCaprio gives a great performance as a mentally retarded boy. It's so good, in fact, that's it's difficult to watch.
09/27/02
First, the good part. There is a 20 second clip of an architecturally interesting courthouse. The rest of the show is either boring or unbearably depressing.
01/01/00
It's endearingly loopy without degenerating into a carnival tent show.
06/19/09
It's as fascinating to see DiCaprio before he became a bona fide star as it is to watch Depp at the very moment he cemented his reputation for coolness.
06/19/09
Hallström's finally struck a chord with the Americans, though it's much the same cocktail of whimsy and worry, the eccentric and the banal, that he's been mixing all along.
02/11/06
As a formula movie, it is a failure. As an interesting and likeable piece of offbeat filmmaking, it’s a very pleasant -- if modest -- success.
12/04/01
No review available.
11/14/03
There is a warmth and wit and insightfulness here that brings the film significantly up a few notches from the usual fare on this subject, and the performances are all excellent.
01/01/00
On the strength of DiCaprio and Depp's performances, What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a fantastic look at the anachronisms of small-town life and the myriad problems of coping with a go-nowhere existence.
11/23/01
A fantastic look at the anachronisms of small-town life and the myriad problems of coping with a go-nowhere existence.
11/23/01
No review available.
04/11/06
Depp's sincere, subtle performance is certainly a big reason for the movie's success...
07/15/06
Hallstrom finds the right bittersweet tone for his dysfunctional family tale (and one of Hollywood's few films about obesity), marvelously acted by Johnny Depp and particularly Leonardo DiCaprio in his second outing as a retarded adolescent.
06/29/07
There is not much plot to speak of, but the film instead presents a moody, elegiac atmosphere of longing and desperation that is powerfully tangible ....
07/10/07
A quirky study of altruism that It shows how love in a family context can be transformed and renewed again and again.
12/08/01
Well-written (albeit a little too long) and competently acted.
01/01/00
It's expertly handled, well-written material that knows and understands its many different characters. There are moments in this film that cover the entire emotional spectrum, and not a second is wasted on insincere emotion, making it a real winner.
02/27/01
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