What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Particularly impressive are the sweet, weirdly idyllic tone of Mr. Hallstrom's direction and Johnny Depp's tender, disarming performance as the long-suffering Gilbert Grape. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Even if you have a taste as I do for movies about dysfunctional families, you may be a little put off by the Grapes. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Depp is subtly winning as a man-child oblivious to his own pent-up rage. But the performance that will take your breath away is DiCaprio's. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Well-written (albeit a little too long) and competently acted. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: One of the most enchanting movies of the year. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Suggests that the true heroes are those people who day by day must tend to misfits, and do so with love, tenacity and a determination not to go terminally sour in the process. Read more

Time Out: Hallstrom's finally struck a chord with the Americans, though it's much the same cocktail of whimsy and worry, the eccentric and the banal, that he's been mixing all along. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom and his fine cast have endowed the story with a good deal of behavioral truth and unstressed comedy. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: There is a good idea for a movie hiding here, but Halstrom has buried it beneath a load of charmless shtick. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Director Lasse Halstrom and cinematographer Sven Nykvist do their best to disguise the predictability with their own grace notes. But all the music in the world can't hide a tone this false. Read more