Mel Gibson plays a troubled middle-aged toy company executive, no longer able to relate to his job nor connect emotionally with his wife and two sons, who is ready to end it all before a discarded beaver hand-puppet changes his outlook on life. "The Beaver" isn't a comedy (problem number one); worse, the psychological ramifications which transpire are misshapen. The film, written by Kyle Killen, is all Ideas: snippets of insight and personal awakening which director Jodie Foster attempts to wring pathos from. Humor might have been a saving grace here, but Foster is surprisingly straight-faced in her approach, while her performance as Mel Gibson's wife is curiously benign. It's likely that Gibson (speaking mostly with a Cockney accent) saw a potentially marvelous actor's turn in the role of Walter Black; unfortunately, the character isn't nurtured along with any shading, and Gibson is all on one (annoying) note. In its latter stages, Killen's script (complete with that dreaded 'story arc' they teach in writing courses) outrageously crosses the line while hoping to be shocking, ironic and provocative. Foster's poignant tag at the very end helps a bit, but the damage has already been done. This "Beaver" has small chops. *1/2 from ****

This is an interesting Drama / Comedy, I think it is mainly the characters and mostly Walter Black (played by Mel Gibson) and Porter Black (played by Anton Yelchin) that keeps this story diverse and interesting.It is kind of a good and bad story mixed together, much like every day life of many, and Jodie Foster has done a great job directing it and making it very believable. I also think the entire cast is very well chosen to their roles and fit them very well.I found it to be entertaining, fun and very interesting, the sickness that Walter has is not explicit, but gently introduced throughout the movie and at the beginning is very funny, but turns out to be an addiction and kind of sad to see Walter in this state.

I'd definitely say that The Beaver's most demented "WTF? moment" was when Walter (while having sex with his wife) still kept the beaver puppet stuck on his hand.... In that perplexing moment which I would call "sheer idiocy", I'd say that that sort of frickin' nonsense takes the cake.... (Sheesh!) I think that this film really sent out all kinds of totally screwy messages about dealing with matters concerning serious psychosis. While watching this flaw-infested film I kept asking myself - "What the hell is director Jodie Foster trying to tell me with this crap?" One thing that I'm certain of is that, at some time in her life, Jodie Foster must've had to deal with some of her own personal issues with her real-life father in order to take it upon herself to direct a film of this one's dysfunctional nature.With "The Beaver" it totally killed me that at the absolute peak of his lunacy, Walter Black was at his most creative, actually managing to save his faltering company from bankruptcy. And, on top of that, his screwed-up beaver-psychosis made him a media-celebrity who was winning rounds of applause and approval from the entire American population.(See what I mean about being sent screwy messages?) It looked to me as though Walter's schizophrenic state had actually elevated him to a "super-hero" status in the eyes of so many.One thing that I couldn't figure out was, if Walter was refusing to take off the beaver hand-puppet for any reason, whatsoever, then, how the hell was he able to get his suit-jacket and shirts on and off? And, like, when one eats steak one's got to use 2 hands for cutting it, right? So, was Walter getting the beaver to saw his meat for him with its teeth, or something? In summing up this film's story in a nutshell, I view its symbolism as being very clear to the fact that Walter, literally, had his hand shoved up the beaver's ass.I resent Jodie Foster for this terrible attempt at trying to manipulate my emotions. I'm really beginning to hate these sorts of films where a great tragedy has to take place in a broken family before its apathetic members start to really care about one another. (Give me a break!) And finally - As far as Mr. Mel Gibson goes, I think that he was totally the wrong actor for the part of Walter Black. Let's face it, Gibson is just way too superficial as an actor to be at all convincing in a demanding role such as this one.It was so obvious to me that Gibson (with, or without the frickin' beaver) couldn't carry this film all on his own. And that's why so much screen-time was invested in paying attention to Black's teenage son, Porter.Putting Porter's predictable, little "cutie-pie" romance with Norah aside, I thought this boy of Black's was one very dangerous, little psycho (like father, like son?) with his neurotic notes pasted up in his room, and, especially, him repeatedly smashing his head at full-force against the bedroom wall until his noggin made a gaping hole right through to the other side.(Of course, Porter's head was never bruised after any of these brutal assaults. Nor did anyone in the house ever hear these thundering bouts of insanity.... (Very peculiar, indeed) Needless to say, The Beaver was a box-office flop. People stayed away from this one in droves. Its budget was $21 million. It has since grossed approx. $1 million.All-in-all - The Beaver was shallow, sugar-coated worthlessness. Thank goodness this tripe only lasted for 90 minutes.

When I encountered this movie it was promoted as a "dark comedy". It is not that. It fails completely at that. You may tell me that Jodi Foster didn't intend it as a comedy. That may well be, but that is how it was pitched to get me to try it. It's unfunny and disappointing on that score.As a portrait of people with emotional problems (most of the characters) it also fails. Mel Gibson's character gets substantial examination but the others are shorthand movie clichés. Overall, I never believe that Walter believes he needs this puppet device.Plus to whoever wrote the score, that does help get across the message that the actor performances don't, but the movie still doesn't get to the goal line.