What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Friday, December 14, 2007

Man, around 2000 or so, I really hated Lasse Hallstrom. He represented everything that that pissed me off in movies. The guy was the epitome of a hack, to me. I mean, I suppose he could like, film snow or European cities and make them look pretty and shit. But everything else seemed so manipulative and creatively bankrupt.

The Cider House Rules is on my list of all time least favorite movies. It takes a very sensitive topic that lots of people (not so much me) have strong feelings about, and simply uses it as a tool to make the audience emotionally involved in the story without really earning it. It doesn't really seem to hold a viewpoint on abortion, moreso it just sees abortion as inherently dramatic. And then, you know, in case that isn't dramatic enough for you, it kills off a character every few minutes to make you sad.

Damn, does that movie want you to be sad. It's maybe two steps shy of showing you photos of dead kittens while peeling an onion in front of your eyes. I'm all for movies making people cry, but it should come naturally, and not be thrust aggressively at the audience.

And then there was Chocolat, a movie that doesn't inspire as much hatred in me, but come on. It was fucking stupid. As much as I'm all for some movies being unsubtle, a la Beowulf, few things irk me more than a movie that wants to be deep and important, yet treats the audience like they are a bunch of fuckin' toddlers. My memory of this movie is vague, but I remember in addition to the glaring obviousness of the story itself, they actually threw in a needless whimisical-voice-over to explain it further.

Oh, and that part where Alfred Molina cries while eating chocolate is one of the most unintentionally funny things I have ever seen.


Ok, that was some good groundwork for my post that I just laid. Kudos, Dan.

Sometime back, I decided to extend the olive branch of brotherhood and forgiveness, or whatever the fuck, and give Hallstrom another chance with What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Because I'm a good guy like that. Grape seemed to be universally well liked, and I thought the cast looked good. And I had always been intrigued by the movie ever since my uncle Maurice told me that he was convinced for years after seeing it that Leonardo DiCaprio was actually a retarded kid that they had somehow gotten to memorize dialogue.

Wow, I've gone a long way here without saying if I liked it or not. Building some serious excitement here. And let me kill the tension by telling you that I did like Gilbert Grape. I didn't love it, like my girlfriend does, but it was leagues beyond Cider House Rules or Chocolat. Doubtful I'll be running out to see any more of his films, but now he's less of a cinematic Hitler in my mind. He's bumped himself up to maybe a George Bush.

The movie is a fairly charming comedy/drama about a small town family with a whole mess of issues. The acting is, across the board, really good. Johnny Depp is, pretty obviously, top notch, but so is every one else. And I think Hallstrom does a good job of showing how they are all bascially good, likable people but with some serious flaws. It's a lot more melodramatic than real life, but still a relatable representation. It's funny and always entertaining, and I think at least skirts the edges of being touching, maybe not quite succeeding but still a good effort.

One interesting shot, and I wish I could remember specifically which scene it was in, comes during one of the big emotional points of the movie. There is a big fight amongst the family, and right at the peak of drama, Hallstrom cuts to a far away shot of the action. The characters are seen as just small figures in front of the house and the fields. I'm not really sure what they were going for, maybe trying to show the characters as part of their environment? Or maybe Hallstrom thought it was too painful or private to stay in tight on the scene? Anyway, for a movie otherwise unshy about taking a close look at the characters, it was a curious choice.

I think there were still some of the Hallstrom-isms that I bitched about before present here. Like Gilbert is fooling around with a married woman at one part, and she's sexily feeding him ice cream with her fingers, when her husband comes home. Hallstrom stages it so that, when they come out to greet him and act like nothing's up, the wife is still tucking in her shirt and Gilbert still has ice cream on his face. I mean, come on. There must have been a less blatant way of making their actions look suspicious. As it is now, they might as well have had Gilbert pulling his pants up on the way out the door.

So occassional moments like that did bother me. And in Cider House fashion, someone diess o that you know this movie is dramatic and not just a comedy. But here, at least, it feels like the movie is building to it, and it fits into the larger tapestry of things. I didn't feel like it killed the character off just to make me cry, more like it's an important part of the story, but they're still hoping you will cry so that you know it was a good movie. Please give them an Oscar, etc.

Well, hey, I still said that I liked this one, so let's end this review on a positive note. There's a scene, the morning after Gilbert loses his shit and beats him up, where Gilbert's retarded brother is hiding in a tree for fun. And Gilbert, just to cheer the little raggamuffin up, makes a big show of pretending not to see him. Anyway, my point is that the scene is really and truly delightful, and that at the very least makes What's Eating Gilbert Grape a worthwhile movie.