What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? makes of these materials an enchanting story of people who aren’t misfits only because they don’t see themselves that way. Nor does the film take them with tragic seriousness; it is a problem, yes, to have a retarded younger brother. And it is a problem to have a mother so fat she never leaves the house. But when kids from the neighborhood sneak around to peek at the fat lady in the living room, Gilbert sometimes gives them a boost up to the window. What the hell.
