The Beaver

The Beaver

                Walter Black is a depressed man.  He is so depressed that he can no longer function in his life.  The Beaver tells the story of a man who uses a hand puppet as the sole way of communicating in his life.

                The Beaver is a small low budget film that is gaining a lot of attention due to the fact that it is Mel Gibson’s first movie since his very public fall in the media.  Jodie Foster directs and stars as his suffering wife Meredith.  Despite the cutesy look of the trailers, this movie is a heavy drama of a family dealing with a father who has a mental illness.   The movie is slow and at times ponderous, but is made bearable by superb acting performances by Mel Gibson and Jodi Foster.  One thing that is forgotten in the spectacle of Mel Gibson’s personal life is that he truly is a gifted actor.  It is a pleasure to watch two actors executing their craft at such a high level. 

                The film opens aptly on Walter Black’s craggy and weary face as he floats in a pool.  His depression is palpable.  One wonders if Mel was drawing upon personal experience to capture the tone so perfectly.  The voice over is a narrator with a crusty cockney accent.  It takes a bit before the audience realizes that it is the voice of the Beaver.  Walter has reached the depths of his depression where his business is failing and his wife asks him to leave the house.  In a drunken stupor, Walter tries to kill himself only to fail at that attempt as well.  When Walter awakens from his botched attempt, he finds that the Beaver puppet he was wearing on his hand is talking to him.  This is not ventriloquism as Walter lips move along with the Beaver’s mouth as he talks.  The Beaver convinces Walter that he is his only hope to wake up from his fog and he must communicate through him alone. 

                When Walter returns home, his wife Meredith is understandably confused, but their young son Henry is so happy that his Dad is playing with him and is so charmed by the puppet that she gives in to the bizarre situation.  Walter, through the voice of the Beaver, comes alive again and becomes the husband and father that he wants to be.

                The elder son Porter (played by Anton Yelchen) is not so charmed.  Having lived for years under his father’s depression, he has nothing but anger for Walter trying to reenter their lives after having been thrown out.  The puppet is further proof to him that his father is completely crazy.  Porter has his own issues at school and his story runs apart and is equally interesting as Walter’s story.  Ultimately, Porter is terrified that he will end up like his father and endlessly obsesses on ways to be different.  He confesses at one point in the movie that he spent his childhood wanting to be just like Walter, but as he grew up he wanted to be anything else but Walter.

                Walter begins to claim his life back through the Beaver.  He becomes the family man his wife and kids missed.  At work, his new found energy begins to turn around his family’s toy company.  In fact, using the Beaver as an inspiration, Walter creates a new line of toys that gain the nation’s attention.  Soon, the toy executive who talks through a Beaver, becomes a media celebrity. 

                The movie begins to take a macabre turn at this point as his wife realizes that this is not just some psychological coping mechanism rather a true sign of his mental illness.  Any attempt to separate Walter from the Beaver causes him to tumble back into his depression.  The relationship between Walter and the hand puppet becomes less comical and more dark as Walter’s mental illness begins to deepen.

                His elder son Porter tries to cope with his own problems and he struggle with the knowledge that he is his father’s son and depression might be his legacy to him.   The movie becomes more disturbing and offers no easy resolutions.  It is a heavy portrait of a family dealing with mental illness, not a charming movie about an eccentric man with a puppet.  I won’t say the trailers misrepresented the movie, but it definitely didn’t prepare me for this tone.

                I have nothing but respect for Jodi Foster.  Both her directing and acting is top notch here.  Combine that with an incredibly heartfelt and nuanced performance by Mel Gibson and I don’t see how I could not recommend this film.  However, I can’t recommend this film (unless it is to see the redemption of Mel Gibson).  It was just a little too dark and too ponderous to be engaging.

I give this film: ** stars