![]() ![]() Weighing in at a quarter of a ton, Momma gets her children to do her bidding from her permanent perch on the living room couch. This is best seen in the treatment of the two seriously afflicted characters, Momma and Arnie. Gilbert is so good, benign and self-effacing in his devotion to those around him that one wonders when he’s going to snap, and indeed he does, but in a comparatively mild manner.ĭirector Lasse Hallstrom and his fine cast have endowed the story with a good deal of behavioral truth and beguilingly unstressed comedy that expresses an engagingly bemused view of life. Evidently autistic and goofily childlike, Arnie particularly likes to climb the town’s water tower so that the cops have to retrieve him, and is the object of family attention due to the grand party planned for his upcoming 18th birthday. ![]() Through it all, the center of Gilbert’s life, and of the film, remains his selfless, fatherly bond with Arnie. More worldly and sophisticated than the local rubes, Becky gently entices the reticent, unassertive Gilbert into a tentative romantic relationship just as his lover (Mary Steenburgen) is moving away. Under the circumstances, however, the family copes reasonably well due to the princely, self-sacrificial ministrations of eldest son Gilbert (Johnny Depp), who works at the grocery, carries on a discreet affair with an older woman and can’t even think of leaving due to how much Momma (Darlene Cates) and Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) depend upon him.Īrnie’s refrain, “We’re not going anywhere,” is thrown into pointed relief with the arrival of Becky (Juliette Lewis), who, with her grandmother, sets up home outside town in a shiny trailer. Adapted by playwright-actor Peter Hedges from his 1991 novel, small-scale film depicts the Grapes, a rural family that has every right to qualify as dysfunctional: Dad hanged himself in the basement years ago, Momma weighs 500 pounds and hasn’t left the house for seven summers, Amy and Ellen are teenage sisters who probably need a husband and a father, respectively, and Arnie is an unpredictable 17-year-old mental case who wasn’t supposed to survive childhood and requires constant supervision. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |