Ìý Lasse Hallström's comedic drama What's Eating Gilbert Grape showcased a young and brilliant Leonardo DiCaprio to the world as retarded young boy Arnie, destined to get into scrapes whenever possible. Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is stuck with the job of rescuing Arnie, in this odd but warm study of a family and their unusual lot in life. With two handsome and popular male leads, this film has long been overdue a release on DVD, but frankly they shouldn't have bothered here.
Technical Analysis Returns
We ditched reviewing DVD picture and sound quality because most discs from large distributors meet basic standards nowadays. Now we find ourselves dedicating a whole review to the presentation of a film.
Bring Back VHS!
Most people find reading technical detail in DVD reviews quite dull as discs are usually vastly superior to VHS releases. Well, this is one time where technical is everything because if you're a fan of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, you will be expecting better quality than the VHS tape. Sadly, judging from the picture you'd think that Entertainment in Video had borrowed back one of their ex-rental tapes and copied that.
The picture is poor. It looks like you're viewing the film through a juddering screen door. The sound is fine, but the extra features of some promotional interview snippets are not even worth your time. Hang onto your VHS or order another region release, as this DVD is so lazy, it even lacks basic subtitles.
EXTRA FEATURES
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.
