What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a wonderful little film, a cute story based in a lazy middle America town filled with day to day drama. Although the screenplay was solid it was the acting which really took it to another level. The chemistry between Juliette Lewis, Leo Di Caprio and Johnny Depp was mesmerising. All relatively young and at the start of their acting careers but delivering performances worthy of Oscar winning veterans.



The Gilbert Grape roles shot Depp and Di Caprio to stardom, both with steely eyed determination to hone their crafts not by playing pretty boy roles to keep their army of female fans happy but with real character based stories.

Depp with the guidance of Tim Burton ripped up the 90's with superb performances in Edward Scissorhands, Ed wood and Sleepy Hollow. He was the king of dark surrealist roles and everything he touched turned into box office gold. Never afraid to star in off beat movies, Depp even provided a solid performance in  Fear and Loathing. The urge to play off beat characters has always been on Depp's radar yet he has also mixed it up with some great performances in straight up drama roles such as in the gritty gangster film Donnie Brasco.



As Depp was approaching his Fortieth birthday he made a concious decision to start making movies that his children could watch, the opportunity to play the now iconic Captian Jack Sparrow was just too good for him to turn down. It was ticking too many boxes! Disney funded, Summer blockbuster, Bruckheimer action, Family fun and right in the middle taking centre stage a wacky eccentric British pirate.

Depp was effectively given free reign to unleash his eccentricity into the role of Sparrow with great success. He just got everything right with critics going wild for the performance. In hindsight I think it helped that he was starring alongside two of the most wooden lead's of all time in
Bloom and Knightley. The pirates role in monetrary terms took Depp to the peak of his career but it also made something switched in Depp's head and that is his urge to keep pushing the boundaries of eccentricity in the roles he selects.


The Willy Wonka performance initially set the warning lights off,  he was very average and almost hit Jim Carrey over acting status in the movie, his child catcher inspired turn was uncomfortable viewing at times, however he was still providing good performances in dramatic roles such as in Finding Neverland.

The first time Depp and his eccentric rampage started to really irritate was in the dismal Sweeney Todd, the same accent as Sparrow but with appaling singing, truly appaling and more 'Carreyness' over acting, throw in his female equivalent in Botham Carter and I was ready to walk out of the movie. The fun of Sparrow was starting to wear thin and this once great actor always surprising with different characters was starting to form a pattern. Was he only interested in playing a Brit?

The Mad Hatter performance in Alice in Wonderland drew a groan from even die hard Depp fans. Here he was at it again, this time swapping the pirate hat for a ginger wig, a top hat and a terrible Scottish accent. A further two Pirates of the Carribean movies along with the disastorous Dark Shadows had me thinking he was after a Brit movie role box set or even better a Knighthood.



Playing Tonto in the Lone Ranger actually made Depp pass Adam Sandler in my top 10 irritating actors list, what makes it worse is that he is such a talented guy. It just appears as though he cant pick a movie at the moment, even straight drama roles which he has always excelled in have eluded him, The Tourist and Transcendance were panned by the critics.

2015 has seen Depp drop to a new low with the truly hurrendous Mortdecai which must have left him staring at the mirror wondering what went wrong, even the small cameo as the wolf in 'Into the Woods' was terrible. He was a Sparrow wolf doing his terrible attempt at a London Cockney accent. To top it off he even attempted to sing again! Have you really got nothing else in the locker Johnny? The 5 minute performance was pure agony to watch.

With Depp signing up to another pirates film and a reprisal of the Mad Hatter role in Through the Looking Glass it appears as though the eccentricity train will still keep on running.

I can appreciate that every star fades away and most of the time it is because they simply cannot act and relied on looks or fan base to see them through a few years. it is such as bizarre circumstance to see such an accomplished actor in his 50's about to supernova out of the movie world. He should be picking his roles looking for that elusive Oscar but instead it is the same old tired and tragically type cast role.

Hang on though... Hope is on the horizon! Could Black Mass be the turning point. Judging by his performance in the trailer along with the superb supporting cast it could be the start of a renaissance in his career. The dialogue at the dinner table drew me in, the accent looks great and he looks on top form.

Fingers crossed it's still not too late to see the best from Gilbert Grape.