One of my all-time favorite movies, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape details the life of Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp), who experiences a myriad of emotion and ultimately learns a great lesson about his family. His father had passed away nearly two decades ago, leaving him, as the oldest, as the head of the family, which isn’t a small undertaking. His mother, Bonnie, (Darlene Cates) weighs in at about 400 pounds and is thereby unable to leave her house. He’s got two sisters, Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhart) and Amy (Laura Harrington), an old falling-down house, and to add to the stress of his every-day life, a younger brother, Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is severely mentally handicapped.

The film is centered around Arnie’s upcoming birthday, which is a huge milestone in the Grape’s lives as he wasn’t expected to live this long. The family is setting up a  birthday party at their house to celebrate, despite Gilbert’s desire to protect his mother from being seen by anyone outside of the family. This heightens the stress of the family, but not as much as the strain on the house from his mother’s weight that is buckling the foundation of the house. On top of everything else, Arnie is nearly too much to deal with, constantly running away and climbing the water tower, and the police department is threatening arrest for it. He’s entangled in an affair with a married woman, Betty (Mary Steenburgen), that he doesn’t want to be involved with. Eventually, though, as he and Arnie watch the caravan of Airstream trailers come into town to camp for the night, Gilbert meets a girl whose truck is malfunctioning and will be stuck in town for longer than just the one night. Becky (Juliette Lewis) and Arnie hit it off, and Gilbert finds in her someone he can finally perhaps open up to as he’s lived his life as a guarded individual with only one purpose: to be the man in the family.

This film has so many dramatic ups and downs, and Gilbert especially does a complete 180 as he realizes the importance of family. Becky helps him to discover he shouldn’t be ashamed of his mother, and he even introduces them. The acting is impeccable, so much so that before I realized that Arnie was a very famous actor, I definitely thought he was challenged. It just takes you on the dramatic rollercoaster, and even though it’s obviously quite dated, it will never lose its appeal. I give this movie 5 stars, and suggest that everyone takes some time out to watch. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a classic that will withstand the test of time, and already has.