 This is a 1993 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Darlene Cates, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who received his first Academy Award nomination for his role. The movie is written by Peter Hedges and based on his novel. For Gilbert Grape (Depp), emergencies* are a natural state. His developmentally disabled younger brother, Arnie (DiCaprio), has a way of climbing the town water tower and forgetting how to get back down. His mother Bonnie (Cates), who weighs 500 pounds, spends days at a time just sitting on the sofa. His boss, who runs the local grocery store, is under threat from the big new supermarket on the edge of town. The film makes of these materials one of the most enchanting* movies of the year, a story of people who aren’t misfits* because they don’t see themselves that way. Nor does the film take them with tragic seriousness. The special quality of this film is not its oddness*, but its warmth. Depp brings a quiet, gentle sweetness that suffuses the whole film. DiCaprio’s performance succeeds in being both convincing* and likable. We can see both why he’s almost impossible to live with and yet Gilbert and the rest of his family love him. However, the Grapes seem stuck in a rut* in Endora, Iowa. Gilbert, who appears to be around 21, hangs out with other guys his age. On his delivery rounds for the grocery store, he makes frequent stops at the home of Mrs. Carver (Mary Steenburgen), a lonely housewife. At home, Gilbert oversees his two younger sisters; the household runs according to rituals, and for some time the kitchen table, with dinner on it, has been brought to his mom so that she won’t have to go to it. Then a young woman named Becky (Lewis) arrives in town, in an RV driven by her grandmother (Penelope Branning). They’re on vacation, and they pause in Endora long enough for Becky and Gilbert to begin a romance. When Gilbert brings Becky to meet his mom, we sense a tension and an excitement that is breaking the pattern of years.(SD-Agencies) | 