The Beaver Review (2011)

Mel Gibson returns to acting as a clinically depressed man named Walter Black who uses a Beaver hand puppet to try and make him well again.

To start with it's amazing that this film even exists. The film was written by newcomer Kyle Killen and was put on the famous blacklist (the place to go for great scripts including Donnie Darko and Juno) but no one wanted to touch it. It went through development hell going from different interpretations including a simple comedy for laughs starring Jim Carrey. Eventually it got picked up by Jodie Foster who decided to make this her 3rd Directional film.

The other concern was that it starred Mel Gibson who as many people know isn't Hollywood's favourite person at the moment. I won't go into the details of why that is but what I will say is that Mel gives a great performance and one that could only have been pulled out of him by his long term friend Jodie.

Jodie also plays Walter's wife and they make a great screen couple and you can tell that they hold each other in the highest regard. This film is not a silly comedy that some people may think, instead its a dark comedy on depression and in some ways Mel helps you believe this story by his own troubled past. Jodie does well to avoid turning this film into a comedy for laughs and cliches and instead makes you feel for Walter's serious illness but also laugh at how Walter's trying to treat himself.

Support characters don't really help the story along but both Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence give good performances as Walter's son and his high school sweetheart. If Jodie decided not to go down the road of 'seen it before' ending then this could of been the alternative summer hit of 2011. But this is still a very brave movie in both the story and for the actor who stars in it, and they just about pull it off.