What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Life is a terrible thing to sleep through.
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.
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| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 17 December 1993 |
| Genre | Romance, Drama |
| Director | Lasse Hallström |
| Starring | Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juliette Lewis |
| Runtime | 118 min |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 7.4/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 90% · Metacritic 73/100 · TMDB users 7.7/10 |
Where to watch What's Eating Gilbert Grape
We could not find What's Eating Gilbert Grape on any of the subscription services we track in the US right now. That changes often; open it in Binge Boss and we will show you where it lands.
Rent or buy
You can rent or buy What's Eating Gilbert Grape on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch What's Eating Gilbert Grape in 14 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Australia | Prime Video $12.99 AUD, Foxtel |
| Austria | Prime Video €8.99 |
| Equatorial Guinea | Prime Video |
| France | Prime Video €6.99 |
| French Guiana | Prime Video |
| French Polynesia | Prime Video |
| Germany | Prime Video €8.99 |
| Italy | Prime Video €4.99 |
| Japan | U-NEXT ¥2189 JPY |
| San Marino | Prime Video |
| South Korea | Netflix ₩13500, Wavve ₩10900, Watcha, Tving ₩10900 |
| Spain | Prime Video €4.99 |
| Switzerland | Prime Video CHF8.90 |
| Vatican City | Prime Video |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track; prices where Binge Boss has a price list for the country. "About" marks a price the service bills in another currency, converted at the day's rate. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
Lasse Hallström’s 1993 drama trades the usual small-town misery for a specific, sticky kind of suffocation. Gilbert is buried under the weight of his family’s domestic life, a burden made literal by his mother’s immobility and his brother’s chaotic energy. The film moves at the pace of a long, humid afternoon, where nothing happens until it suddenly does. It is a quiet study in exhaustion, capturing the precise moment when the routine of caring for others finally cracks. Depp plays the resignation with a stillness that makes the eventual arrival of Juliette Lewis feel like a storm front.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes sits at 90%, a score that feels generous for a film critics admitted was predictable. Metacritic lands on 73, a generally favorable nod that barely hides the reservations. The consensus leans heavily on the cast, with Janet Maslin noting DiCaprio’s "sharp, desperate intensity" and Roger Ebert calling it "one of the most enchanting films of the year." Dissent exists, too; Desson Howe saw an earnest but highly predictable effort. The performances carried the sentiment, even when the script did not.
How it did with audiences
No box office figures exist in the data, so the verdict rests on the audience score. TMDB users rate it 7.7 out of 10. That is a solid mark for a film about a small town where nothing moves and everything hurts. It suggests viewers found the stillness worth the wait. The numbers are quiet, but they are not empty.
What came next for the cast
DiCaprio arrived from Poison Ivy and Critters 3, then spent the next few years in Titanic. Depp traded A Nightmare on Elm Street for Pirates of the Caribbean. Lewis moved from Christmas Vacation to From Dusk Till Dawn. Steenburgen stepped out of Back to the Future Part III into Elf. The timeline suggests a shift, but careers are not linear. They are just a series of choices made in different rooms.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Sources
- What's Eating Gilbert Grape on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q660894 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “What's Eating Gilbert Grape” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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