In a role possibly mirroring his recent well publicized struggles, Mel Gibson plays a once successful and once happy CEO of toy company who now wallows in depression and barely has enough energy to get out of bed. After his loving but fed up wife (Jodie Foster) throws him out of the house and he botches a less than inspired suicide attempt, he comes across a beaver puppet in a dumpster which he affixes to his hand and which begins to speak in a cockneyed British accent. He finds living through the puppet helps him deal with his depression and begins addressing everyone including his family and employees as The Beaver. The Beaver is proof both of Mel Gibson's talents as an actor and that attention should be focused more on an actor's work than on their personal life. Though Gibson's acting throughout the film is tremendous, the other elements of the film are less than stellar. Unremarkably directed by Jodie Foster, who is wonderful though in her acting role, The Beaver is a patronizing film as well as a trivial look at mental illness. The film is not particularly well written and what should have been a showcase for Gibson and Foster instead elects to share time with an unworthy subplot involving their disapproving son played by Anton Yelchin and his attempts to woo classmate Jennifer Lawrence. The Beaver is evidence of Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster's (who needs to convince no one) acting prowess in a film that really isn't worth their efforts.
