THE BEAVER

The Beaver (2011)
Grade: B-
Starring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, and Riley Thomas Stewart
PREMISE: A depressed man on the verge of suicide finds the courage to take on life when he begins using a beaver hand puppet as an alter ego, to the chagrin of his estranged wife and moody teenage son.

RATED PG-13 for language, intense emotional content, and some sexuality

The Beaver is a movie about lonely people trying to connect with a world that, for the most part, doesn't care if they're lonely or not. There's Nora (Jennifer Lawrence), a high-school valedictorian and looker whose popularity and accomplishments can't erase the sting of her brother's death by drug overdose. There's Porter (Anton Yelchin), a young man who uses his gift for writing to win a buck (writing papers for classmates), but who so despises his somber home life that he takes out his frustration by head-butting a hole in his bedroom wall. There's Meredith (Jodie Foster), mother of Porter and of a younger son, Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart), a caring working mother who wants to be there for her kids but has long since lost the comfort and support of her husband. And, of course, there's Walter Black (Mel Gibson), that husband, who has sunk into a near coma from depression and dissatisfaction, and is on the verge of killing himself after his wife kicks him out of the house, when he comes across a beaver puppet in a trash can. Desperate for someone to talk to who won't shout at him, shun him, or recommend useless pills or books, he keeps it. And it keeps him.

While watching The Beaver, I was strongly reminded of two other films, the much-decorated Americana tragicomedy American Beauty, in which a bored, bland middle-aged husband and father (Kevin Spacey) finds new meaning in his life in his feelings of sexual attraction for a friend of his daughter's, and Lars and the Real Girl, a modern fairy tale-type dark comedy in which a childlike man (Ryan Gosling) who finds it hard to communicate with others buys a life-size sex doll off the internet and pretends it's his girlfriend, speaking to it and including it in his everyday life, using it as someone he can adore, idolize, and claim understands him. These movies are echoed in The Beaver in the way Walter is physically-present but emotionally and mentally absent in his family's life-and his whole family is clearly affected by it-and by the way the beaver provides Walter with a way to start breathing freely again.

The beaver puppet--only ever called 'the beaver'--becomes Walter's sounding board, his megaphone, his conscience, and, eventually, something more like an alter ego. With the puppet on his left hand ever thrust slightly in front of his face, with his head ducked behind it, Walter is able to speak his (or "the beaver's") mind, while being protected from the sting of others' criticisms. It's a shield, one that allows him to live again without feeling the same terrifying vulnerability. Adopting a dense Irish accent and pretending to have been put on this "therapy" by a doctor, Walter inspires his younger son by taking up his old hobby of carpentry, impresses his wife with wit and charm and liveliness, and even impresses the employees at his inherited toymaking business with his newly free, irreverent ideals. Of course, this new "side" of Walter does nothing to win the approval of his forbidding older son, who hates how much he's like the old man and is mortified when "the beaver" makes entrances into his own social life. In fact, "the beaver" begins making many entrances into people's lives, enough into Walter's to make one question Walter's actual sanity.

The Beaver wastes no time getting down to business, and it's surehanded at depicting the isolation people feel. While, of course, Walter lounges drunkenly around an apartment and tries to hang himself from a shower rod, Meredith struggles to encourage her younger son, and to get him to open up, and Porter languishes in high school hallways that nearly always seem empty--his only interactions seem to be receiving money in order to bail someone who claims to be uncreative out of a tight spot with a class. And when Nora approaches him, needing help with her graduation speech (and possibly more, a la actual companionship), he is glad to oblige.

Gibson, who in earlier films like Payback, What Women Want and the Lethal Weapon series, proved surehanded at balancing drama and comedy in the same script, is solid here, though the bulk of his acting is done with the beaver thrust in front of his face (about 95% of his dialogue is in that Irish brogue, which sounds a lot like the voice of the actor Ray Winstone; it's impressive how thoroughly un-Gibson it sounds). The actor gives it his all, though even that isn't quite enough in later scenes when it's clear the persona of "the beaver" is taking over his life-at least one late scene suffers from tonal schizophrenia, as the sight of Gibson bickering with the beaver make you want to see them as Gollum-esque and humorous, but they hint at something else. That something else, though, is never explained. Nonetheless, Gibson is a sturdy front man for this movie.

Foster, who also directed, isn't given that much to do, but she does manage to make the pain of a confused, abandoned wife palpable, especially in one scene where a meaningful anniversary gift is flatly rejected by "the beaver". Lawrence-who's going to hit box-office paydirt in a few weeks as the lead in The Hunger Games-is disappointingly-bland as Nora, though, to be fair, the character isn't all that exciting (it's hard to imagine a more colorless love interest). But Yelchin shows flashes of brilliance as Porter-who tries to bring out the best and most unique traits in others while paying little heed to the same traits in himself-and becomes the character for whom you ache the most.

I think my biggest problem with The Beaver is that I didn't quite understand why Walter was so depressed to begin with. Some people are just depressed, of course, and that could be it, but those late scenes with the beaver I mentioned hint at something else, and that something else is never fully explained. Is he schizophrenic? It sure seems like it, but it's never said, though scenes where Walter acts in ways he undoubtedly wouldn't, while using the puppet as his guide, seem to promote the idea that more of his mind is engaged in the beaver persona than originally suggested. Also, the film's theme, of really loving one another and being there for one another, is kind of shoe-horned in with little support from the plot before the credits roll.

And about those other two films I mentioned: The Beaver is not as gritty and sad as American Beauty-neither is it as heartfelt, and it also lacks the earlier film's edge of self-aware humor. And it doesn't contain the feel-good whimsy of Lars and the Real Girl.

So, do I recommend it?
I'm on the fence. Gibson may be different than you've ever seen him, Foster and Yelchin are good, and the plots moves quickly, but it's offbeat and sobering enough that I wouldn't call it a must-see.

Bottom line:
Intriguing but dark film. Adventurous moviegoers may be rewarded, but The Beaver is a strange journey that doesn't quite have an ending.

The Beaver (2011)
Directed by Jodie Foster
Written by Kyle Killen
Rated PG-13 for language, sexuality, and intense emotional content
Length: 91 minutes