Movie Review of The Beaver
Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster still exist and they come charging back with “The Beaver”, a story that mixes comedy absurd iconoclast, family melodrama and psychological suspense. Rather ridiculous … unless you can believe this story of duality between a man and his puppet.
Walter (Mel Gibson) is depressed. He has marital problems and work. Contemplating suicide, the father decided instead to remain silent and to speak through a doggie-shaped beaver. And it works! His company was floundering gets a second wind and his wife Meredith (Jodie Foster) accepts him back home. Only his eldest son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), who resists this miraculous transformation. The teenager is afraid to look like his father and he combines the bad decisions. Maybe it will go through a hello pretty classmate (Jennifer Lawrence) who hides a painful secret.
What a strange idea. Why not for a short few minutes, but for a film that stretches over 90 minutes? This is called stretching the elastic. Course that will end up exploding in his face. It is practically impossible to believe in this relationship of love and hatred between humans and their furry alter ego. This has been done before and themes associated with them (loneliness, depression, split personality and Lark) are not negligible, except that the treatment sometimes lacks consistency. What needs to be comical and becomes dramatic late effects that evoke the suspense but ultimately looking like a bad B horror. Laughing at several places, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
The staging of Jodie Foster is not in question. As in his previous achievements “Little Man Tate” and “Home for the Holidays,” the actress speaks again of her family and multiplies the mirror games between a father and son. A construction material that ends up being a bit mechanical, mainly during the final stretch that is not in the lace, making them succeed in turning moralistic.
The fine interpretation virtually ended by buying most of these missteps. Mel Gibson seems to play himself and he is much better impression than the dubious “Edge of Darkness.” So much so that it fades completely before the beaver that British accent that all children would have. Much less present on the screen, his partner in “Maverick” the cheek of a much more down-to-earth, while the tandem Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence rings true even though there is little chemistry between them.
“The Beaver” finally looks like a religious book. You must believe in the doctrine and accept everything with your eyes closed, otherwise the book seem particularly ludicrous. This would surely have been possible in other circumstances. But for his own sanity, you’d better resign. Who knows, maybe one day this film will become sick cult…
