What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges

His affair with Betty ends when she leaves town in search of a new life following her husband's death-he drowned in the family's wading pool after suffering a heart attack. He returns home late and finds that Arnie is still in the bath the following morning, shivering in the now cold water his guilt is compounded by his family's anger and Arnie's subsequent aquaphobia. In order to spend time with Becky to watch the sunset, Gilbert leaves Arnie alone in the bath. Gilbert's unusual life circumstances threaten to get in the way of their budding romance. A young woman named Becky and her grandmother are stuck in town when the International Harvester Travelall pulling their trailer breaks down.

The family is looking forward to Arnie's 18th birthday. In addition, Gilbert is having an affair with a married woman, Betty Carver. A new FoodLand supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson's Grocery where Gilbert works. The relationship between the brothers is of both care and protection, as Gilbert continually enforces a 'nobody touches Arnie' policy. With Bonnie's morbid obesity leaving her unable to care for her children on her own, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing the old house and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing the town water tower, while his sisters Amy and Ellen do the rest. His father had hanged himself 17 years earlier, and since then his mother, Bonnie, has spent most of her days on the couch watching TV and eating. In the small town of Endora, Iowa, Gilbert Grape is busy caring for Arnie, his mentally impaired brother, as they wait for the many tourists' trailers to pass through town during an annual Airstreamers' Club gathering at a nearby recreational area. It was directed by Lasse Hallström and it was released on December 17th 1993. The movie was based on the novel of the same name by Peter Hedges. Leonardo DiCaprio got nomitated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for this film. What's Eating Gilbert Grape? is a 1993 dramatic film released by Paramount Pictures. The film follows 24-year-old Gilbert, a grocery store clerk caring for his morbidly obese mother and his mentally impaired younger brother in a sleepy Midwestern town.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges