Director: Jodie Foster (Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays)
Screenplay: Kyle Killen
Producers: Steve Golin, Keith Redmon, Ann Ruark
Starring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 91 min.

(2/5)

In her many years in Hollywood, Jodie Foster hasn’t made many mistakes in front of the camera. Occasionally her choices surprise but she always delivers memorable performances. Her directorial turns haven’t gone over quite as well. Though proficient, I’ve found her films a bit too sappy and rather lacklustre and though entertaining, they have failed to meet the success of Foster’s onscreen work.

When news started to circulate that she would be heading behind the camera for The Beaver, Hollywood news dropped running with the sexual innuendoes attached to the tile and quite frankly, any one of those dirty jokes would have made a more entertaining film than this one and as ships captain, Foster takes some of the blame though this is very much the case of a script that simply doesn’t work.

Foster stars as Meredith, a hard working roller coaster architect who spends endless hours in the middle of the night conferencing with her international clients and Mel Gibson as her husband Walter, the head of a toy company on the brink of extinction, due in large part to Walter’s ongoing battle with depression. The illness isn’t just killing his business, it’s also hurting his family. His would son Henry seems distanced from his largely absentee father while Porter, is a smart but disengaged teen who spends his days writing papers for classmates, planning a grand road trip for post-graduation/pre-college entry and stressing about tracking the similarities he shares with his sick father.

During a particularly bad night of drinking, Walter fudges his suicide and wakes with a beaver puppet on his hand, apparently his alter ego come to life to protect the fragile side of Walter from the horrors of real life. With the beaver as his spokesperson, Walter saves his business and attempts to save his family until a psychotic break leaves him nearly dead. It sounds vaguely interesting and who isn’t up for a strange little piece of drama but The Beaver fails to deliver. Walter’s fight with depression is turned into a pathetic joke and as much as the puppet seems to be helping him, I can’t imagine any shrink agreeing that hiding behind a hand puppet is any way to deal with the issues in his life. At first, it’s entertaining seeing how others react to the fact that the beaver is now “in charge” but once the odd looks wear off, it turns into a tediously boring series of overly dramatic events, each less interesting than the one before.

The film’s single glimmer of entertainment comes from Porter and his attempt to build a relationship with one of the popular girls who approaches him for help with her graduation speech. Their start and stop relationship and road to self discovery is much more touching and poignant than any other aspect of the film. Part of it is that it feels earnest but mostly its due to Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence’s performances, both of which are poorly weaved into Walter’s drama with the puppet. I would love the opportunity to see these two together in another film, hopefully one better than this one.

This high concept drama should have stayed on the page where reading that a dude is talking through a beaver hand puppet is easily forgotten. It’s not that it’s weird though it is rather uncommon; it doesn’t work. It takes a dark, important issue like depression and makes it the butt of a really unfunny joke. The film is not just about Walter but most of the running time is dedicated to his struggle to rebuild his life with the help of his puppet but there’s no emotional connection to either Walter or the creepy beaver. I felt more for the vice president of the toy company who we see three or four times than I felt for the film’s central character. Not exactly a winning combination.

The Beaver is available on DVD today.

DVD Extras: Director’s commentary, making of featurette and a couple of deleted scenes.