Review of The Beaver (2011) by Eva Y — 21 Oct 2011

Jodie Foster's The Beaver tells a tale of depression, sadly it dilutes down the seriousness factor with humor and ultimately fails to focus the movie to the main subject, depression.

The movie's main character Walter Black (Mel Gibson) for many represents the standard for upper class America. Wealthy through heritage, Walter's life looks great from outside but deeper problems lurk just below the picture perfect surface. Walter might succeed in providing for his family but fails miserably in managing it. The wife (Jodie Foster) becomes frustrated with the lack of communication skills on Walters side, older son hates him and only the youngster of the family seems to cope with emotionally drained Walter. In the end failing marriage and business problems push Walter to the breaking point and he becomes possessed by his demons which appear in a form of Beaver hand puppet. Initially the craziness seems to pay off, Walter becomes more social, family gets back together and business is blooming. Walter manages to convince people around him that the puppet is only part of a radical therapy method, but later on (predictably) the Beaver shows his true colors and darkens the movie's tone.

Hats off for Jodie Foster in directing and acting the movie, but she fails in keeping the movie focused. While the movie ultimately is about Walter's depression, big part of the movie's screen time is spent with the family's elder boy's unimportant human relationship drama which feels like distraction and filler material for the movie. Mel Gibson is back in the spotlight after a long pause, but it becomes apparent rapidly that he is not the best candidate for Walter's role. Be it Gibson's lack of skill in acting department or the fact that the movie takes humorous and too clinic clean approach to depression as a sickness, in the end Beaver fails to make serious impact. The movie remains watchable but the whole 1h 31min running time feels like struggle due to the rather obvious flaws.