Corrected entry: When Gilbert is telling about the family and Endora at the beginning of the movie, he says that his father hung himself 17 years earlier. Yet, just seconds earlier he says he has a sister that has just turned 15. How did he father a child born two years after his death? There's no implication that she's a half-sister or adopted. (00:04:50)
Phaneron
27th Aug 2003
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Correction: Amy could be close to turning 16, and Gilbert could have rounded up on the years his father's been deceased. Maybe it was 16 years and 7 months, so he just said 17.
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Correction: Later in the movie, the truth comes out as Gilbert tells his girlfriend that his father just walked out and never came back.
The dialogue in the scene in question suggests that their father walked out, but later returned to their house to commit suicide. Gilbert specifically says "He was just hangin' there." We also see Arnie sitting next to his father's grave at Ken Carver's funeral, with his date of death reading October 13, 1978. If we assume the movie takes place in 1993, then that actually allows for Ellen to have been conceived or even been born before the father's death, though it would render Gilbert's statement that he died 17 years earlier a character mistake.
Phaneron ★