The Beaver jokes don't really get old, nor does good movies about inanimate objects with human qualities. Anthropomorphism movie such like this, belong with other greats like Castaway, and Lars and the Real Girl. These movies have always been a treat to watch. Director Jodie Foster brings out a movie that deals with the real life issue of depression to the screen while trying to balance both comedy and drama. Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black (Mel Gibson) was once a successful toy executive and family man who now suffers from depression. The movie doesn't really explain why his depress about, but it's does explain what he try to do about it. No matter what he tries, Walter can't seem to get himself back on track. He reach his lowest point when his estranged wife Meredith (Jodie Foster ) kicks him out. Walter with nearly no hope, find a way out when he discovers in a dumpster, a beaver puppet. Walter use the Beaver as a way to cope with reality, as well to bridge himself from losing it with insanity. The Beaver acts like a therapy middle man, as a way for Walter to create a new life or in his words 'A new slant', as he's not able to work through the emotional, physical pain of the past. Mel's performance is stunning. He plays this part walking a tightrope between the man who is shutting down personally yet wanting to reach out to his children & wife the only way he can. It's kinda weird hearing Mel Gibson doing a Australia cockery accent for the Beaver. I haven't heard that voice since his early works. The Beaver voice does sounds like Bob Hospkins or Ray Winstone sometimes. The Beaver is also charming, but very mean-spirit when speaking at Walter in a way showing that Walter might have self-hatred of himself. Letting the beaver take control of business meetings, domestic matters, most everything in his formerly sorry life, Walter frees himself to be a new and better man, albeit a man who speaks in two voices and goes everywhere with a buck-toothed sock on his hand. The problem with this, is that Jodie Foster's character Meredith pressures Walter to get rid of the Beaver, and doesn't allow Walter time to learn that he doesn't need the Beaver at all. This decision by Meredith leads Walter into another dark path. The relationships between the family members is real and you could feel both the tension and pain they were suffering. The movie had some uncomfortable moment, yet it's looks so what 'out there'. The fight with the beaver looks silly as hell, while the scene is suppose to be taken serious. I can't help laughing at it. I thought it could have been better with cut shots of Walter, or just the puppet talking. Having both in the film makes the scenes with them look cheesy. Walter is not the only one struggling to locate an authentic sense of self. The older son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), ghost-writes his high school classmates' papers and speeches for money. The boy's awkwardly developing relationship with the class valedictorian Norah (Jennifer Lawrence) takes up fully half the screen time in a sub-plot that would better work for explaining why Walter is depress. Norah's issues come out of nowhere, and it's really hard to connect this story to that of Walters. Yelchin lacks an animating spark and is merely adequate, at times I nearly forgot who the actor is. At some scenes, I thought I was watching Elijah Wood, or a piece of wood. The only thing worth noticing is how Porter doesn't want to end up like his father, but has similarly to that of his father having hate of his father. I particularly enjoyed the generational similarities of the father, grandfather and son. The movie seem like two different movies at times, but it's loosely fix together between father and son. The music has a nice European charm to it, but it can be a bit depressing. Still, it's about mental illness, so what did you think was going to happen. It's a tear jerker with a powerful optimistic conclusion ending that leaves audience with a happy note. What the movie does well, is show the foregrounds of the American family as a fractured but ultimately healing source of depression. This film is an incredible, original, powerful work of art with surprises and shocks and deep themes and feelings stirred up. This film deals with our demons, with the parts of ourselves that we cannot control and that we fight each day, it deals with our defects of character and psychological wounds. Now to the critic that judge the film based on Mel Gibson's personal life. To me, just being flat out honest, I could care less about Mel Gibson personal's life. He obviously an amazing actor. That kinda sucks for people who can't see him as anything else but an Anti-semitic maniac. While it does upset me with what is going on in Mel Gibson's personal life, he is still a fantastic actor and i wish that the majority of people were able to look past that, It's time to forgive and forget. The public is in danger of allowing the recent press regarding Mr. Gibson to deprive them of an outstanding film about the effects and outcome of mental illness on a large spectrum of people. The movie should be judged on the performance alone, not bash due to what the actor does outside of a film.
Review of The Beaver
