2. Whats Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Directed by Lasse Hallström, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape is a heart-rendering insight into the isolation of rural America, where the inhabitants are stranded in a vast landscape of open fields and dusty roads that lead to mysterious worlds. The story is set in Endora, a small nowhere town in Iowa where everybody knows everybody, with entertainment at a drastic low. A pre-superstar Johnny Depp plays the title role of Gilbert, a hopelessly unfulfilled young man who devotes most his days to looking after his disabled brother, Arnie, excellently portrayed by a boyish Leonardo DiCaprio. Gilbert lives in a large, rundown farmhouse with Arnie, his two sisters Amy (Laura Harrington) and Ellen (Mary Kate Shellhardt), and their morbidly obese mother Bonnie (Darlene Cates). The family are haunted by the suicide of Bonnies husband, who hung himself in the cellar, causing Bonnie to fall into a deep, chronic state of depression of which she never recovers. In the wake of his fathers death, Gilbert takes on the responsibility of tending to Arnie whilst also providing financial support by working in a local grocery store, and the expectancy of him is high at all times. Gilberts only respite is a secret affair with a housewife named Betty (Mary Steenburgen), but his enjoyment is gradually ebbing away, as is his patience with his family members. The only talking point in Endora is the imminent opening of a new chain supermarket, which has a great bulk of the community wracked with a mix of anticipation and apprehension at the prospect of change. For Gilbert, the supermarket symbolises his own longing for a change of scene, which is further enforced upon the arrival of Becky (Juliette Lewis), a traveller with a free spirit who was only passing through Endora until her grandmothers truck broke down. Soon enough, she and Gilbert embark on a swift romantic dalliance, opening Gilbert eyes to a land of opportunity. However, with his family in need of his assistance, Gilberts sense of entrapment becomes overbearing and his actions become a detriment to the people he loves. At a time when Depp was considered to be the next big thing, his capabilities to act with subtly and compassion are on full display in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, and the film is a fine case of the sacrifices people make for family, even if it is at their own expense.