What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“Life is a terrible thing to sleep through.”

In the small Iowa town of Endora, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) works at a grocery store while caring for his housebound mother (Darlene Cates) and his younger brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio). When Becky (Juliette Lewis) arrives in town, Gilbert glimpses a life beyond his family's needs, but leaving means Arnie loses his only steady anchor. Hallström frames the town itself as a trap where love and obligation become the same weight.