What's Eating Gilbert Grape tells the story of young man, who lives in a small town called Endora, and has to take care of his handicapped brother and his obese mother with the help of his two sisters, after their father committed suicide for no apparent reason. The brothers don't live an easy life and they had to grow up fast since their mother due to the misfortune was carried away by sadness.

The performance by Leonardo DiCaprio is absolutely amazing! We look at him and is impossible not to think that he is not actually mentally disabled. His acting is impeccable and at that time he was already showing his amazing acting skills. Johnny Depp has the leading role, which he portrays very well but I think is really Leo who steals the show. The chemistry between the two actors is evident that helped to create a believable story too.

This film is a very beautiful and touching. Will make you feel different emotions throughout the story with very sad situations along the way but also happy and funny moments that will warm your heart. It just simply shows a day-to-day life of people that had to learn early how is to be an adult and face difficult situations.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape is incredibly touching. Worth watching.

I recently watched this movie again after many years, and was surprised how many details I had forgotten. It features a great ensemble cast who seem to mostly share a screen rapport. Leonardo DiCaprio previews his future star career with a stellar performance as the difficult Arnie.

I thought the scene where husband Mr. Carver comes home from work and obsesses over the burnt cookies and the unused swimming pool was silly and a bad fit for the film, especially consider what came after the scene. Meanwhile the two sisters were great characters: they were emotional when the situation called for it, but gave an even and restrained performance. I would have like to have seen more of them.

I don't know what else I can say but that it's a 'lovely' film. It CERTAINLY should have been Leo's first Oscar but hey, we all know he got mugged off there. I have never seen anyone play such a challenging character so well. It was amazing!
+I'm not a big fan of Johnny Depp but his acting was also brilliant (the casting for this movie was spot on in general)
For the story-line, I can't really fault anything but the time span. It's supposed to have all occurred over 6 days, which makes things unrealistic for me. (IE- Certain relationships, people moving away, major events), I just feel like it would be almost impossible to go through as much, change as much, have your feelings change as much in such a short space of time but apart from that, I can't really fault it. If I would have missed the sentence that gave away it was over a 6 day span, the movie would have been pretty much the best it could be.
It's a good watch and really has you loving all the characters and feeling for them a lot. You have moments of joy and pride then anger and upset and that's what a movie should be like... Basically, it's a movie well done and I'd certainly recommend it.

**A rather conventional and average family drama, where DiCaprio and Depp's performances turn out to be the only truly worthy note.**

Sometimes, what makes a film remarkable is the extraordinary performance of an actor, and that becomes even more admirable when that actor is extremely young. That's what we have in this film, a conventional family drama, where a young adult tries to live his life as normally as possible while having to take care of everyone around him, particularly his mother, who is morbidly obese and depressed, and his younger brother, who has a mental problem that the movie never really specifies.

In fact, I didn't find the script particularly interesting. Cinema is full of family dramas, and this one has nothing really new or fresh to add. And if the script doesn't seem remarkable to me, the production values ​​and technical aspects deserve even less attention, with the film betting on very conventional and average visuals, and a pace that sometimes slows down and falters, the result of an editing not always well executed.

What makes the film more interesting is the cast, which includes two young actors, then very promising, called Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Depp is older than DiCaprio, and his career was relatively established when he agreed to star in this film. DiCaprio, on the other hand, was still an unknown young man and was beginning to emerge. However, the collaboration between them, in this film, is remarkable, and it seems that both knew how to get the best out of each other, to our benefit.

Although today we know Depp through a wide range of peculiar characters, what he did in this film is the complete opposite, and his character is one hundred percent ordinary, responsible, mature and strong. DiCaprio, however, stands out the most, even more than Depp. Playing a mentally disturbed teenager, DiCaprio had a lot of leeway to study and design the character and his mannerisms and tics. The result is truly credible and surprising.

Mary Steenburgen and Darlene Cates provide very effective support and give us the best female performances. In absolute counterpoint, Juliette Lewis doesn't have much to do, while Laura Harrington and Mary Kate Schellhardt practically disappear when they're on the scene.

So, I had no idea who Leonardo was when I saw this back in the 90s, it was before Titanic, before he made it big, and I thought they hired an intellectually disabled man to play the part.

And it dropped in '93 so that would make Dicaprio about 19? Maybe 18 when they made it?

I doubt they would give an Oscar to a kid that young, but see that he's CLEARLY not Intellectually Disabled and how believable he was, well, that's probably one of the best performances I've seen. That was Oscar worthy.

Besides that, it was really a Johnny Depp vehicle... as much as a 90s indy film can be, and he played a calm, low key, and utterly charming role in a film about a man that had to maybe grow up too fast and deal with too much at too young an age.

And, of course, a charming little love story. A charming story about family. About loyalty.

There is honestly absolutely nothing to criticize here, except, it's certainly a 90s story, a 90s movie, and if you are removed from Gen-X, it might not have the appeal. This isn't the over-the-top FX sort of films that are a hallmark of the Millennial generation...

...but beyond that, KUDOS to Leo for nailing it as such a young age, and a cheers to everyone else involved for making a brilliant and entertaining hidden gem of a film