What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Gilbert has care for his brother Arnie and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life.
- Director: * Lasse Hallström
- Genre:Comedy / Drama / Romance
- Runtime:118 minutes
Cast
Brad Pitt : Detective David Mills
Morgan Freeman : Detective Lt. William Somerset
Gwyneth Paltrow : Tracy Mills
R. Lee Ermey : Police Captain
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The film opens in the small fictional town of Endora, Iowa, where Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is busy caring for his mentally handicapped brother, Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) as they wait for the trailers to come drive through town (their “annual ritual”). His morbidly obese mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates) has done little except eat since her husband’s death, and longs only to see Arnie live to the age of eighteen. With Bonnie unable to care for the children by herself, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing their old farmhouse and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing the town water tower if he is left unsupervised for too long, while his sisters Amy (Laura Harrington) and Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt) do the chores and the cooking. The relationship between the brothers is of both care and protection, as Gilbert continually enforces the “Nobody touches Arnie” policy. A new “FoodLand” supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson’s Grocery store where Gilbert works. In addition, Gilbert is having an affair with a married woman, Betty Carver (Mary Steenburgen).
The family is looking forward to Arnie’s eighteenth birthday. A young woman named Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her grandmother are stuck in town when their car pulling an Airstream trailer breaks down. Gilbert’s unusual life circumstances threaten to get in the way of their budding romance. In order to spend time with Becky watching the sunset, Gilbert leaves Arnie alone in the bath-tub to bathe himself. He returns home late and wakes up the following morning to find Arnie still in the bath, shivering in the now freezing cold water; his guilt is compounded by his family’s anger. From then on Arnie refuses to touch any sort of water, including the pond by Becky’s trailer, making him incredibly dirty all the time. Gilbert’s affair with Mrs. Carver ends when she leaves town in search of a new life following her husband’s death — he drowned in the kiddie pool after suffering a heart attack. Becky becomes close to both Gilbert and Arnie and as she talks to Gilbert she begins to unlock some buried hopes, dreams and happiness. They become so involved in one of their talks until Gilbert realizes that Arnie is no longer there with them, and has returned to the water tower he is forever trying to climb, and this time has succeeded and reached the very top. Arnie is arrested after being rescued from the top of the tower, causing his mother — who has not left the house in seven years — to become the object of pointing, laughing, photo-taking, and gawking from the townspeople as she goes to the police station, forcing Arnie’s release. Read more
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