If you really want to shake up the mold for the indie family drama, why not insert a beaver puppet? Writer Kyle Killen's hook for "The Beaver" clearly caught the attention of Jodi Foster, who directs and co-stars, and trailers showing Mel Gibson making a fool out of himself talking in a thick British accent with a beaver on his hand couldn't hurt the intrigue factor either.
It sounds like a comical approach, but "The Beaver" plays out consistently like a drama. The beaver puppet in the film serves as a deeply depressed, suicidal man's last-ditch effort to keep himself alive, and what this means for his family isn't exactly ripe for slapstick.
Gibson plays Walter Black, a toy company CEO who from the onset we learn (through Beaver voice over) has become almost catatonically depressed. After moving out and trying to take his own life, Walter starts talking to himself in the form a beaver puppet in order to turn his life around. He tells his wife, Meredith (Foster), that his psychiatrist recommended it as therapy and she plays along in hopes of getting back the man she once loved.
Walter instantly gains new confidence and energy. He forms a new bond with his younger son, Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart), rekindles some romance with Meredith and infuses his company with fresh ideas, including one for a beaver tool set. Only his older son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), refuses to accept the Beaver outright, unable to see anything but the man he deeply fears becoming.
Killen's script takes a rather realistic approach. The characters respond to Walter and the Beaver in ways you could consider both over and under-reacting. Young Henry reacts as a young child would to a puppet, teenage Porter sees it as a ploy of some kind and Meredith sees that this "therapy" could in fact be good for her husband. Everyone at the company is just glad things are stabilizing and moving in the right direction. As an audience, we can at least understand how channeling his better qualities into a separate personality could allow him to function on a day to day basis and even succeed.
The rest of the film plays out the results of Walter's experiment. No new obstacles enter the picture, it's just a matter of whether Walter can reconcile both his family and the Beaver before any irreparable harm is done to either party. The results materialize rather quickly, almost too quickly given that in theory, Walter and his family could have probably lived for years with the Beaver in their lives, even if someone cracking was an inevitability no matter how long the experiment lasted.
The only real comedy in "The Beaver" comes most interestingly from Foster's direction and Gibson's performance. Foster's directing choices, especially the way she shoots Walter and the Beaver together, not trying to point your eye to either Gibson or the puppet, capture the reality of this strange scenario while retaining most of its quirkiness. At some point, no matter how realistic the approach to the story, you have to acknowledge it's about a man who talks through a beaver puppet, and Foster does that.
Who better, really, to play a totally broken man being laughed at by everyone in the country (at one point Walter's story gets national exposure) than Gibson? Public perception of Gibson is so negative at this point that there almost is this magical quality about the Beaver and the way Gibson voices him in such a humorous, jovial manner. He also creates an impressive distinction between Walter and Walter being the Beaver that proves crucial to buying into the film's entire concept. The portions of the film that work well owe a lot of credit to his performance.
Lost in the shuffle is the main side plot, the budding relationship between Porter and the valedictorian at his high school, Norah (Jennifer Lawrence). Porter has a side job writing papers for his fellow students and Norah is nervous about giving the graduation speech. Their relationship draws certain parallels to what's going on with Walter, but the thematic connection doesn't erase how disparate these stories are.
"The Beaver" presents a lot of big but simple ideas about living with the various awful circumstances that life throws our way, about understanding the past's effect on the present and consequently our outlook on the future. Exactly what does it take for us to move on from the darkness of our past? "The Beaver" makes its case in a fashion that's a bit too tidy, but the approach is sincere and the film ends up better than expected.
~Steven C
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It sounds like a comical approach, but "The Beaver" plays out consistently like a drama. The beaver puppet in the film serves as a deeply depressed, suicidal man's last-ditch effort to keep himself alive, and what this means for his family isn't exactly ripe for slapstick.
Gibson plays Walter Black, a toy company CEO who from the onset we learn (through Beaver voice over) has become almost catatonically depressed. After moving out and trying to take his own life, Walter starts talking to himself in the form a beaver puppet in order to turn his life around. He tells his wife, Meredith (Foster), that his psychiatrist recommended it as therapy and she plays along in hopes of getting back the man she once loved.
Walter instantly gains new confidence and energy. He forms a new bond with his younger son, Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart), rekindles some romance with Meredith and infuses his company with fresh ideas, including one for a beaver tool set. Only his older son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), refuses to accept the Beaver outright, unable to see anything but the man he deeply fears becoming.
Killen's script takes a rather realistic approach. The characters respond to Walter and the Beaver in ways you could consider both over and under-reacting. Young Henry reacts as a young child would to a puppet, teenage Porter sees it as a ploy of some kind and Meredith sees that this "therapy" could in fact be good for her husband. Everyone at the company is just glad things are stabilizing and moving in the right direction. As an audience, we can at least understand how channeling his better qualities into a separate personality could allow him to function on a day to day basis and even succeed.
The rest of the film plays out the results of Walter's experiment. No new obstacles enter the picture, it's just a matter of whether Walter can reconcile both his family and the Beaver before any irreparable harm is done to either party. The results materialize rather quickly, almost too quickly given that in theory, Walter and his family could have probably lived for years with the Beaver in their lives, even if someone cracking was an inevitability no matter how long the experiment lasted.
The only real comedy in "The Beaver" comes most interestingly from Foster's direction and Gibson's performance. Foster's directing choices, especially the way she shoots Walter and the Beaver together, not trying to point your eye to either Gibson or the puppet, capture the reality of this strange scenario while retaining most of its quirkiness. At some point, no matter how realistic the approach to the story, you have to acknowledge it's about a man who talks through a beaver puppet, and Foster does that.
Who better, really, to play a totally broken man being laughed at by everyone in the country (at one point Walter's story gets national exposure) than Gibson? Public perception of Gibson is so negative at this point that there almost is this magical quality about the Beaver and the way Gibson voices him in such a humorous, jovial manner. He also creates an impressive distinction between Walter and Walter being the Beaver that proves crucial to buying into the film's entire concept. The portions of the film that work well owe a lot of credit to his performance.
Lost in the shuffle is the main side plot, the budding relationship between Porter and the valedictorian at his high school, Norah (Jennifer Lawrence). Porter has a side job writing papers for his fellow students and Norah is nervous about giving the graduation speech. Their relationship draws certain parallels to what's going on with Walter, but the thematic connection doesn't erase how disparate these stories are.
"The Beaver" presents a lot of big but simple ideas about living with the various awful circumstances that life throws our way, about understanding the past's effect on the present and consequently our outlook on the future. Exactly what does it take for us to move on from the darkness of our past? "The Beaver" makes its case in a fashion that's a bit too tidy, but the approach is sincere and the film ends up better than expected.
~Steven C
Thanks for reading! Visit moviemusereviews.com