What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) ***

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) is commendable for the way that it treats its characters, those members of the Grape family that sit outside "normal" functioning society, never making them a joke (to quote Momma Grape). Outside of that fact and an excellent and sensitive performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, I found a lot of the characters underutilized and underdeveloped (a shame with such an incredible cast). I also found the score to be quite saccharine, with Depp just floating his way through it all. Which kind of makes sense for the character of Gilbert, but the film really drags and becomes too po-faced in the second half, only to be "redeemed" by a typical happy ending. It's still very enjoyable and well-made, but this film had the makings of something truly special—it just never quite gets there for this viewer.