Movie · 1993 · Romance, Drama · 1h 58m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 7.3/10 (648.5K ratings)
Life is a terrible thing to sleep through.
Overview
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.3/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.83/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Lasse Hallström
Production
Paramount Pictures
Cast
Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Darlene Cates, Laura Harrington, Mary Kate Schellhardt, Kevin Tighe, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Penelope Branning, Tim Green, Susan Loughran, Robert B. Hedges, Mark Jordan, Cameron Finley, Brady Coleman, Tim Simek, Nicholas Stojanovich, Libby Villari
Curator Review
Verdict
A tender, bruised small-town drama with real emotional weight, anchored by a deeply felt performance from Johnny Depp and a breakout turn from Leonardo DiCaprio. It balances melancholy, compassion, and a faint thread of hope without sanding off the messiness of family obligation.
Best for
viewers who like intimate character studies
fans of coming-of-age drama with emotional realism
people interested in performances centered on family dynamics and disability
audiences who appreciate quiet, small-town melancholy
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy movie with constant momentum
you prefer broad comedy or a feel-good romance
you are looking for a clean, uplifting resolution
you dislike stories built around caregiving stress and emotional heaviness
Overview
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a small film with a large emotional footprint. It finds drama in the daily grind of responsibility, where love, guilt, resentment, and duty all blur together inside one cramped household. The movie’s power comes from how lived-in it feels: the town, the family, and Gilbert’s exhaustion all register as part of the same emotional weather.
Worth noting
Johnny Depp plays Gilbert with a muted, inward ache, while Leonardo DiCaprio gives Arnie a performance that is vivid, funny, and heartbreaking without ever turning him into a symbol. The film is at its best when it lets these relationships breathe, especially in the scenes that show how much care can coexist with frustration.
Bottom line
It is not a movie that rushes toward catharsis, and that restraint is part of its appeal. The romance and the possibility of escape matter, but the film’s real achievement is its empathy for people trapped by circumstance and still trying, imperfectly, to keep going.
Top Letterboxd reviews
gusk00 (0.5★) · 6335 likes
Nobody ate him
Teddy Frederick (4★) · 4547 likes
Crazy to think Arnie grows up to become the Wolf of Wall Street
issy 🥝 (4.5★) · 2763 likes
my last review for this was just “leo”, a foolish and cowardly attempt. I see that review and I raise myself one more: leo leo. now I lean back in my chair and wait for my next move. I could not possibly predict what it will be
issy 🥝 (4.5★) · 2447 likes
leo
lily? (4★) · 2022 likes
reason #79 why the oscars are bullshit: they were scared to let 19 year old leonardo dicaprio win best supporting actor even though he blatantly outperformed the other old ass men in the category (and no i havent seen the other performances i just know these things)