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What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
Paramount // PG-13 // November 27, 2001
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Director Lasse Hallstrom has become widely known in the past few years as the director that Miramax turns to for an art-house success that they can market to Oscar voters ("Chocolat", "The Cider House Rules"). While these pictures often boast terrific acting and beautiful imagery, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is one of Hallstrom's films that seem a bit more risky and occasionally, a bit more rewarding.
The film stars Johnny Depp as Gilbert Grape, who lives in the microscopic town of Endora, Iowa. As someone who has often travelled through small towns like this one, I've always been somewhat impressed at some of the elements of how this town is portrayed. The town is a bit slow-paced, a bit simple, and everyone knows each other. There's no Starbucks - there's maybe a cafe that's owned by the latest generation of a family and the town's grocery, maybe a drug store. Yet, outside these towns, bigger chains (such as "Grape"'s Foodmart) inch closer into town, threatening to put these smaller, often family-owned establishments out of business.
Gilbert has found himself the "father figure", as his father recently passed away, leaving him to care for his overweight mother (Darlene Cates) and mentally handicapped brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio). He's also carrying on an affair with a local woman (Mary Steenburgen as Betty Carver). Gilbert works as a stockboy at the local grocery store just to make a living. It's there that he first gets to meet Becky (Juliette Lewis), a young woman who happens to stop there while passing through on vacation with her mother.
Suddenly, Gilbert slowly begins to realize that he has to start to live his own life and eventually, find his way out of the pattern that has become his existence in Eudora. Arnie's repeating bellowing of "we're not going anywhere!" seemed to summarize the plight of the characters, but thankfully not the movie, which, although somewhat slow, does have a nice, deliberate pace.
The film also boasts superb acting, especially from Dicaprio, whose performance as the mentially handicapped brother is remarkable. Depp gives a nice, subtle performance, as well. Even Juliette Lewis, whose performances are generally loud, shrill or a combination of both, remains quiet and enjoyable as Becky. Darlene Cates is superb as the mother and John C. Reilly also provides a good supporting performance as Gilbert's friend.
The film is not entirely without some concerns. The romance between Lewis and Depp is satisfactory, but they don't quite have the kind of chemistry to make the romance completely convincing. The subplot about the affair between the Steenburgen and Depp characters also seemed a bit unnecessary and a bit cartoony and the score occasionally became a bit sappy.
Flaws aside, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is a fine picture. Not a great deal happens, but we get to know these characters and become sympathetic for their attempts to journey outside their small town life and reach out for their dreams, whatever they may be.
The DVD
VIDEO: Paramount presents "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The exceptionally strong and occasionally beautiful cinematography of infrequent Woody Allen collaborator Sven Nykvist ("Crimes and Misdemeandors", the striking black & white of "Celebrity") is presented quite well throughout the film - although there are a few minor flaws here and there, the majority of the transfer remains an above-average effort. Sharpness and detail are generally very good; the picture has a very slight touch of softness to it at times, but still remains crisp and well-defined.
What will especially please viewers is how clean the film appears. Although there are the occasional specks that pop up on the print used, these are hardly noticable and no further instances of wear appear. While no pixelation was spotted, some very minor edge enhancement was seen during a couple of moments.
The movie presents a very natural color palette, which was presented quite well here, as colors looked nicely saturated and clean, with no smearing or other problems. Black level remained solid and flesh tones accurate. There's a lot of people who were hoping for the best with the presentation of this film and Paramount has delivered a very fine effort.
SOUND: "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is presented by Paramount in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Paramount. According to the IMDB, a Region 2 release was offered in only 2.0 audio, so it appears that Paramount has remixed the audio for this release. While the effort is appreciated, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" rarely ventures beyond dialogue-driven. The surrounds come in for the music over the end credits, but I don't believe I heard much else from them during the entire picture, aside from maybe some very subtle ambience during the outdoor sequences. Still, the audio activity suits the picture and quality of the presentation remains pleasant, with clear and natural dialogue.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS: Nearly nothing: just the trailer.
Final Thoughts: There's a very considerable fan base for this picture. While they may be dissapointed by the near-complete lack of special features, the presentation of the film is pleasing and Paramount's drop here to $24.98 from the usual $29.99 deserves praise, making the purchase a bit more appealing to those who desire it. For those unfamiliar with the picture, it's worth checking out as a rental first - I think it's a good and occasionally great picture, but I'm not sure what kind of re-watchability it has.
Director Lasse Hallstrom has become widely known in the past few years as the director that Miramax turns to for an art-house success that they can market to Oscar voters ("Chocolat", "The Cider House Rules"). While these pictures often boast terrific acting and beautiful imagery, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is one of Hallstrom's films that seem a bit more risky and occasionally, a bit more rewarding.
The film stars Johnny Depp as Gilbert Grape, who lives in the microscopic town of Endora, Iowa. As someone who has often travelled through small towns like this one, I've always been somewhat impressed at some of the elements of how this town is portrayed. The town is a bit slow-paced, a bit simple, and everyone knows each other. There's no Starbucks - there's maybe a cafe that's owned by the latest generation of a family and the town's grocery, maybe a drug store. Yet, outside these towns, bigger chains (such as "Grape"'s Foodmart) inch closer into town, threatening to put these smaller, often family-owned establishments out of business.
Gilbert has found himself the "father figure", as his father recently passed away, leaving him to care for his overweight mother (Darlene Cates) and mentally handicapped brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio). He's also carrying on an affair with a local woman (Mary Steenburgen as Betty Carver). Gilbert works as a stockboy at the local grocery store just to make a living. It's there that he first gets to meet Becky (Juliette Lewis), a young woman who happens to stop there while passing through on vacation with her mother.
Suddenly, Gilbert slowly begins to realize that he has to start to live his own life and eventually, find his way out of the pattern that has become his existence in Eudora. Arnie's repeating bellowing of "we're not going anywhere!" seemed to summarize the plight of the characters, but thankfully not the movie, which, although somewhat slow, does have a nice, deliberate pace.
The film also boasts superb acting, especially from Dicaprio, whose performance as the mentially handicapped brother is remarkable. Depp gives a nice, subtle performance, as well. Even Juliette Lewis, whose performances are generally loud, shrill or a combination of both, remains quiet and enjoyable as Becky. Darlene Cates is superb as the mother and John C. Reilly also provides a good supporting performance as Gilbert's friend.
The film is not entirely without some concerns. The romance between Lewis and Depp is satisfactory, but they don't quite have the kind of chemistry to make the romance completely convincing. The subplot about the affair between the Steenburgen and Depp characters also seemed a bit unnecessary and a bit cartoony and the score occasionally became a bit sappy.
Flaws aside, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is a fine picture. Not a great deal happens, but we get to know these characters and become sympathetic for their attempts to journey outside their small town life and reach out for their dreams, whatever they may be.
The DVD
VIDEO: Paramount presents "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The exceptionally strong and occasionally beautiful cinematography of infrequent Woody Allen collaborator Sven Nykvist ("Crimes and Misdemeandors", the striking black & white of "Celebrity") is presented quite well throughout the film - although there are a few minor flaws here and there, the majority of the transfer remains an above-average effort. Sharpness and detail are generally very good; the picture has a very slight touch of softness to it at times, but still remains crisp and well-defined.
What will especially please viewers is how clean the film appears. Although there are the occasional specks that pop up on the print used, these are hardly noticable and no further instances of wear appear. While no pixelation was spotted, some very minor edge enhancement was seen during a couple of moments.
The movie presents a very natural color palette, which was presented quite well here, as colors looked nicely saturated and clean, with no smearing or other problems. Black level remained solid and flesh tones accurate. There's a lot of people who were hoping for the best with the presentation of this film and Paramount has delivered a very fine effort.
SOUND: "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" is presented by Paramount in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Paramount. According to the IMDB, a Region 2 release was offered in only 2.0 audio, so it appears that Paramount has remixed the audio for this release. While the effort is appreciated, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" rarely ventures beyond dialogue-driven. The surrounds come in for the music over the end credits, but I don't believe I heard much else from them during the entire picture, aside from maybe some very subtle ambience during the outdoor sequences. Still, the audio activity suits the picture and quality of the presentation remains pleasant, with clear and natural dialogue.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS: Nearly nothing: just the trailer.
Final Thoughts: There's a very considerable fan base for this picture. While they may be dissapointed by the near-complete lack of special features, the presentation of the film is pleasing and Paramount's drop here to $24.98 from the usual $29.99 deserves praise, making the purchase a bit more appealing to those who desire it. For those unfamiliar with the picture, it's worth checking out as a rental first - I think it's a good and occasionally great picture, but I'm not sure what kind of re-watchability it has.
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