The Beaver

Starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, and Jennifer Lawrence, The Beaver is about a man named Walter (Gibson) who is a husband and father, but suffers from depression. After finding a beaver puppet, he finds that he can talk to people better through the puppet.

I was kind of on the fence about taking the time to watch this one. On one hand, Jodie Foster will always have a special place in my heart because she is Clarice Starling. But on the other, I don't want to support Mel Gibson's crazy. Foster directs The Beaver, and she must have some balls to work with Gibson in the midst of the ruin of his personal (and I would certainly argue professional) life. But The Beaver works for me, and I actually enjoyed it.

It was easy to forget Mel's personal crazy because Walter's is almost as bad, but at least he talks through a puppet with an adorable accent which helps us to forget about the man who's attached to it. I also found it interesting that it is quite obvious that Walter is the voice the Beaver, there is no attempts at ventriloquism which I always found as a good reminder that Walter is always in control of what the Beaver is saying, even though he has a personality of his own. I also applaud the fact that this movie is very much about depression, that in a society where mental illnesses are still taboo, that this movie tackles it big time. I do wish that we would learn more about Walter's illness in the beginning, what he was like before his depression and why things changed. I really don't want to be insensitive about depression and realize that maybe nothing triggers it, but I don't know. In the end though, is the audience forced to suspend belief regarding the liklihood of this being possible? Not really, I thought it was well done and generally believeable. Would I have said "enough is enough" way before his wife did? Oh heck yes.

There was also a parallel storyline involving Walter's song Porter (Yelchin) that I also enjoyed. Yelchin I most remember from Charlie Bartlett, and I just find him so charming yet vulnerable, and he was the same in this one. His love interest is Norah (Jennifer Lawrence) who you may remember from Winter's Bone, and she is definitely a strong actor.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Beaver, it was interesting and quirky and different.