What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Life is a terrible thing to sleep through.

A 1993 film starring Johnny Depp as the eponymous Gilbert Grape. The story deals with the Grape household and their friends and acquaintances from Endora, Iowa. Picking up a few years after the suicide of Gilbert's father we see its impact on everyone involved.

One of the main difficulties the family is having concerns Arnie Grape (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who is developmentally disabled which creates a great deal of problems for everyone involved, especially the multiple times he climbs the town water tower and refuses to get down for everyone, except his brother Gilbert.

Gilbert ends up chaffing against his role as the new man of the house, along with having to find his way through romantic tensions with a married woman, preparations for a grand party for Arnie's 18th Birthday, his morbidly obese mother's declining health, and worrying about his future career.

Tropes present:

• Anti-Protagonist Morality: Just barely averted. Gilbert being yelled at for going off to meet Becky instead of staying with Arnie would come off as this if Gilbert hadn't technically broken a promise to always be there for his brother, and if he himself didn't realize his mistake and feel shitty about it. The movie makes sure Gilbert is sympathetic despite being a Knight in Sour Armor.
• Big Eater: Bonnie Grape is a very tragic-comical example of the fat version.
• Book Ends: The trailers going through Endora.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Ellen Grape
• Can't Get Away With Nuthin': The one time Gilbert goes out to see Becky, Arnie almost drowns in the bath. Naturally he gets chewed out for it big time.
• Death By Newbery Medal: Averted. The mentally challenged Arnie lives through to the end, with his mother succumbing to obesity-related health problems instead.
• Driven to Suicide: Mr. Grape, before the movie begins.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Averted, when Gilbert says his mother is the size of a beached whale, he is not far off.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Bonnie Grape, in a picture (a real picture of the actress), taken before she gained the weight
• Kids Are Cruel: The kids of Endora likes to hang around the Grape residence, hoping to have a chance to catch a glimpse of, and laugh at the morbidly obese Bonnie. Curiously enough, they are never shown to bully Arnie, and are actually very accepting of him.
• Kill It with Fire: The family's solution to how to deal with their dead mother's corpse at the end of the film.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Gilbert loves his family and wants to take care of them, especially Arnie, but he takes on so much it becomes frustrating and he ends up griping about it to his friends.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Discussed by Gilbert's friends about Mr. Carver (who also happens to be offering Gilbert a job while his wife tries to get Gilbert to sleep with her) after he drowns to death in a kiddy pool party, argued to be subverted because he had a heart attack that caused him to collapse in such a way that he drowned in a kiddy pool.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Becky seems to be one for Gilbert.
• My God, What Have I Done?: At the beginning of the movie, Arnie - the mentally challenged young man - kills a grasshopper by beheading it, and then cries to Gilbert about it. Later on in the movie, Gilbert loses his cool - leading him to slap Arnie around, after being so protective of him.
• No OSHA Compliance: The town water tower is incredibly easy to climb up. All access to the ladder should be locked off.
• The One Who Made It Out: Janice and Larry.
• Pun-Based Title
• Resentful Guardian: Played with. Gilbert is very protective of Arnie and even appointed himself as his guardian, but sometimes he gets sick of it and just wants to live his own life.
• Small Town Boredom: Welcome to Endora, Iowa where they look up to the majestic happenings of Des Moines, Iowa.
• Super Drowning Skills: Arnie fears that he has this and refuses to go in or near water after he is left in a bathtub all night and almost drowns.
• Those Two Guys: Gilbert's friends, a handyman and a mortician who often discuss the new Burger Barn that's about to open and how much better then other fast food chains they are.
• Two-Person Pool Party: With their clothes on no less, and while Arnie watches.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Gilbert lifts up a little boy to gawk at his obese mother, his friends chastise him for it.
  • When Gilbert leaves Arnie to almost drown in the bathtub, and later when he hits him.
• Your Cheating Heart