The Beaver (2011)

Mel Gibson stars as a mentally unstable father, who after failing to commit suicide, takes refuge by speaking through a Beaver puppet he found in a dumpster. Jodie Foster stars as the wife of Gibson in her 3rd film as director. Her first time to direct in 16 years and she didn't make it easy on herself casting Gibson. As well all know Gibson is going through a rough patch in his life as he is struggling with alcohol abuse.

The film, which stars these two actually spends 1/2 of the film focusing on his son, Jared [Zachary Booth], and the issues he is dealing with not wanting to be like his dad, but unable to escape his family. Jennifer Lawrence stars as the valedictorian who seeks out Jared to help her write her graduation speech, which is just as much a stretch of the plot as Gibson with a beaver on his hand.

The film is disturbing at times, then silly at other times, at no point do we get the impression that the beaver can actually speak for itself and Gibson never tries to be a ventriloquist. The beaver is the gimmick, but Booth and Lawrence kept this from being a 4 or 5 for me. I still wouldn't suggest it, but it could have been much worse.


Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321860/

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