This movie takes us into the suburbs of the Midwestern United States, to a small town called Endora. Which according to Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) the star and narrator of the movie is a lifeless town and as he narrates the story about his family he tells us all about the town in one eminent sentence which is "living in Endora is like dancing to no music". The director Lesse Hallstrom has done a magnificent job in portraying the screenplay by novelist-screenwriter Peter Hedges also named as What's Eating Gilbert Grape. The central idea of the movie revolves around Gilbert's adoring and motherly relationship with his retarded brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

As the movie goes along we get to know a few more characters, and the most important is Momma (Darlene Cates) a 500-pound lady who hasn't left the house since her husband's suicide and pretty much dominates the house of the Grape family. In absence of Momma from her duties, Amy (Laura Harrington) Gilbert's older sister is acting as a substitute mother of the house. The younger sister Ellen (Marry Kate) is rather a selfless and rude teenager. There are two other ladies related to Gilbert, one is an unhappy housew

The other most touching scene of the movie is when Gilbert gets a birthday cake for Arnie, after he has ruined the cake his sister had baked for his birthday party. Although Gilbert does not want to buy products from any where else other than the store where he works he has to do this just because of Arnie and this shows that he cares for no one when it comes to Arnie, not even himself. And from the beginning of the movie we have seen Arnie and Gilbert talk about celebrating Arnie's 18th birthday party.

The other scene that gives evidence of Gilbert's concern about Arnie is when he is enjoying the sunset with Becky. His conscious never let him forget about Arnie and suddenly he remembers that it was time for Arnie's bath and had to leave his girlfriend alone to watch the beautiful sunset to go home and give a bath to Arnie. This time he teaches Arnie to take a bath by himself and goes back to see Becky who is still waiting for him knowing that Gilbert left her just because he had to put his retarded brother into a bathtub. The next morning when Gilbert wakes up the first thing he remembers is that he has put Arnie in the bathtub last night and has forgotten to check on h

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 806
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)