What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Estefania Caro

Introduction to Special Education 203

Movie Critique

Tues. January 28, 2020

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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Gilbert Grape lives in a small town with his younger sisters and brother, Arnie, who is

mentally impaired. Their dad committed suicide and the mom is extremely overweight that

Gilbert describes her as a whale to people. Throughout the movie, Gilbert takes on a lot of

responsibilities by taking care of his family, working at a grocery store, and looking out after

Arnie. Arnie’s mental disability often causes him to get into trouble at home and with the

town’s police. Gilbert wants to do many things with his life but he feels like he is stuck with the

life he’s living because of his obese mother who can’t move around much and with Arnie’s

disabilities. He then meets Becky, who is staying in town for a short period of time. She gets

along well with Arnie and ends up falling in love with Gilbert. Soon after Arnie’s 18 th birthday

party, the Grapes’ mom passes away. The siblings burn the house down and decide to move on

with their lives. In the end, Gilbert takes Arnie with him and they join Becky on the road to start

traveling.

Arnie has autism. He has a hard time communicating, he repeats what others around

him say, he does different facial expressions, and has a hard time socializing with other kids and

people. He is 17-years-old, going on 18, but acts much younger than his age. At the beginning of

the movie, Gilbert explains how doctors only expected Arnie to live up to be ten but he sure

passed that age. Life is stressful for Arnie and the whole family. He doesn’t really know right

from wrong and says things that can be hurtful. He also causes a lot of arguments and fights

within the family. They must keep an eye on him at all times.
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According to the movie, Gilbert was the one most frustrated over Arnie’s disability. He

had to take on the father role and watch over the family. He couldn’t do a lot of things that he

wanted to because he had to take care of Arnie’s needs first. Every time Gilbert would leave his

brother alone, Arnie would go climb the town’s water trouble which kept getting him in trouble

with the police. The sisters and mother constantly kept telling Gilbert that he has to help out

more and do better with taking care of Arnie when he really is the only one taking care of him.

At times, they all get really frustrated but it has a bigger impact on Gilbert because of

everything he has been through.

In order for society to erase prejudice towards disabilities they must understand what

the disability is and how it makes people think and function in society. People with autism are

smart in their own way. They still understand what is being said to them and they have

emotions and feelings as well. They are also not completely disabled or impaired so society has

to give them a chance and let them help out with different tasks because they too, want to

contribute and help.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was a really great movie. Leonardo DiCaprio, who played

Arnie, did an excellent job at acting as a teenager with autism. I felt different emotions

throughout the movie. It was uplifting, even though some parts were sad. I believe more

movies should have more characters with disabilities, even in young children’s’ movies so

young kids who do not know about other kids that look and act different than them can get a

chance to see what it’s like for them to live with a disability. It would be a great way to reduce

bullying as well in elementary and middle schools. I really enjoyed watching this movie.
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Works Cited

Hallstrom, Lasse. “What's Eating Gilbert Grape.” Netflix, Netflix, 20 Nov. 2019,

www.netflix.com/title/60011552.