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| Mel Gibson bonds with a hand-puppet beaver to get over his depression in Jodie Foster's The Beaver |
QUICK REVIEW:
Walter Black is chronically depressed, and his family can't stand it any longer. But then he starts to cure himself with the Beaver, a hand-puppet...
The Beaver walks the fine balance between absurd comedy, drama and a credible portrait of living with depression at the same time. It is actually a fine little film.
Mel Gibson (Signs (2002)) and Jodie Forster (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), - who also directed the film, - play the married, struggling couple with the high class that you would expect from them. Anton Yelchin (Fierce People (2005)) is unimpressive as a son, while Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone (2010)) is good as a love interest for him. But the student speech about loss and grief, - a key storyline in the film, - is somewhat unoriginal.
The Beaver has a nice symbolism going for it about amputation and roller coasters.
Unfortunately, this, Foster's third movie as a director (following Little Man Tate (1991) and Home for the Holidays (1995)) was a major flop. - Probably just too odd for most audiences, which is a bit of a shame, since it's not a bad movie, or really all that obscure, at all. Might also have been that many audiences hadn't forgiven Gibson yet for some of the things that had been written about his ugly, personal scandals in the tabloids.
Related review:
Jodie Foster: The Brave One (2007) - Acting in the afterwake of random, deadly violence (actress)
Watch the trailer here
Budget: 21 mil. $
Box office: 6.3 mil. $
= Huge flop
What do you think of The Beaver?
Other unusual cinematic portrayals of depression that you can think of?
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