Review: The Beaver

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Despite the pun-magnet title, The Beaver is an unexpectedly dramatic film that succeeds in part because of -- and at times despite of -- its star.

When Walter Black (Mel Gibson) has a midlife crisis, he implodes more spectacularly than the average person. But Walter isn't an average person; he has a beautiful house, a beautiful wife Meredith (Jodie Foster), two children (Anton Yelchin, Riley Thomas Stewart) and a big family business that many would envy. Yet he cannot manage any of it and it slips away out of his unclenched grasp.

Instead of finding his inner child when he finally rallies, Walter creates the distance he desperately needs as well as the momentum to start moving forward through an alter-ego in the form of a old beaver hand puppet. Those around him seem to control their misgivings to different degrees, with his teenage son (Yelchin) clearly resenting it, his wife somewhat appalled but desperate to get her husband back, and the younger son who embraces it with the resiliency most kids show.

While this unusual plot device may lend itself to comedic moments, The Beaver is a family drama about the very real impact of depression. Austinite Kyle Killen's script earned its place on the prestigious Black List, an annual list of the best unproduced screenplays by taking a familiar plot (imploding family) and completely subverting it with hand puppetry.

The Beaver character itself isn't just mimicry but an apparently different personality, complete with a gravelly accent that made this reviewer wonder for a moment if it wasn't being done by Ray Winstone. As the beaver befriends Walter's son and kicks some life into Walter and everyone around him, it seems Walter's self-prescribed therapy is working. But being a drama and not a comedy, there's a price to pay and the line blurs between who needs whom.

Gibson isn't breaking any new ground himself, but does manage to demonstrate he hasn't forgotten how to be subtle. Foster's own performance is a subdued but more because of the role; how else would a successful woman separating from the father of children be when there is hope, but it's in a handmade toy that talks for her husband? Usually therapists are facilitators, not barriers to communication, and certainly don't come in the form of a hand puppet with his own growing agenda. Still Meredith gives it a chance, but it becomes clear the beaver likes being in control. Yelchin and Stewart unfortunately has the most predictable roles in this dysfunctional family drama.

And therein lies the problem with The Beaver. While there is an surprising turn of events, the actors otherwise have predictable stories to play out. The one actor who gets to play a refreshingly different take on a usually stereotypical role is Cherry Jones (Signs) as the vice oresident of Walter's company. Jones is refreshing as a business woman who is not portrayed as repressed, angry or controlling. Jones has played other quietly competent characters in the past, and despite her role not even having a name in the credits, there's a scene where you can see her character weighing her options when Walter appears with The Beaver, and is willing to go trust Walter instead of blocking his plan to bolster lagging sales and exposure through a new product.

Director Jodie Foster treats Walter and his unconventional self-help mechanism with straightforward minimalism without judgment, similar to how she directed Little Man Tate, letting the characters drive the story. It's also easy to make comparisons another family psychological healing through artificial people as synthetic substitution for normal interaction in the tender drama Lars and the Real Girl. In fact, all three films would make a great triple feature, and play off similar themes of social isolation and how families deal with the social and mental challenges of one of their own.

All three succeed in differing ways as stories, and unusual alternative therapies bringing the walking wounded back to society, but by far, The Beaver is the darker journey, as the seemingly comic and harmless device brings out bigger issues he hasn't yet faces or overcome all the while his son's own coping mechanisms land him in trouble and entangled with the top student at high school who has her own deep darks (played by Jennifer Lawrence).

The Beaver asks a lot of the average audience, but those who are willing to trust the filmmaker and let the story play out, and not require a gift-wrapped Hollywood ending, may find it stays with them long after the lights go up.