The film stars Johnny Depp as the title character, who lives in the small town of Endora. He works at a local grocery store which is in competition with another one and lives with his family where he spends most of his time taking care of his mentally challenged brother Arnie (Leonardo Dicaprio) and his obese mother (Darlene Cates). He also has an affair with a customer played by Mary Steenburgen. However, his life changes once he meets a girl named Becky (Juliette Lewis).
I'm going to start with our lead character and love interest. I love Depp, I really do, he's one of the best actors of all time but here he's dull and boring. His character isn't appealing as much as you think he does, he's really just in the film as more of an observer then having any character. Sure he has a few emotional moments, so I can't fault the character or performance completely but still there is something very wooden in both the character and performance. Juliette Lewis as the love interest, well at first I thought she was as dull as Depp is, however as I watched the film I actually found her character likable. The chemistry between her and Depp is kind of there, they have their moments but I wasn't feeling it a hundred percent. In fact, I found her relation with DiCaprio some what more interesting then Depps.
Speaking of DiCaprio, he's one of the main reasons that I find extremely over rated in this film. Dicaprio playing a mentally challenged person is so over the top, so over exaggerated, so fakely acted and so annoying that I consider it offensive. Films before this movie like "Of Mice & Men" (Any version), "Rain Man", and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" portrayed the mentally challenged people with respect, gave the actors their limits on how far they can go and made them identifiable and likable. Here, this performance doesn't use any of that and makes the actor more idiotic and childish as if he's playing it out to be funny. Yeah the films I just mentioned even future movies like "Forrest Gump" and "Mozart And The Whale" did have moments that were played out for laughs too but they also knew how to balance the comedy and the drama to these characters as well as making them likable and giving the power to have the audience feel for them. Here, there's is no drama (Except for maybe two scenes that really don't work), there is no emotion, it's all just played out for laughs. The crazy part is and a thing I'll never understand is he was not only praised by his performance but he was nominated for both the "Globe" and the "Oscar". Maybe I'm missing something, maybe there's a reason behind it, maybe it's because he was an unknown at the time but as a young man who knows these types of people, this to me falls under the category of "Simple Jack" performances. If you don't get my reference, look it up.
The supporting cast and performers have me mixed. Let's start with the ones I enjoy. First off we have Darlene Cates as the mother and while starting off as a joke, she's actually the only character I feel for in this movie. She's made fun of, she stays in her house, she's upset about her weight and all this makes her identifiable and likable, as well as having you feel her emotions for her. So out of all characters, I felt in this movie, it was her. I also enjoy watching John C. Reily and Crispin Glover hanging out together and enjoying themselves, they're really a lot of fun. Mary Steenburgen as the woman who Gilbert has an affair with is not likable as the film tries to make her, she's actually a character and performance that really gets under my skin, aside from DiCaprio's. She's a mother of two, has a good husband (Who's by the way really bland) but she whores over Depp who is young. Yeah, yeah I know "The Graduate" did that but Mrs.Robinson was at least interesting and funny, here this woman has nothing interesting to her what so ever. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that Gilbert has two sisters, who are very bland and forgettable as well. As for the cinematography and music, it's ok but not too memorable.
Overall, the film has me very mixed. It has some things that work and other things that don't work. I don't know if I'll see this film again but I will give it a fair rating since it wasn't awful or bad for that matter.
RATING 3/5
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