The Beaver

"Oh come on, it's a radio show. People can't see the puppet... so why talk through the puppet?"

The above quote comes at a point in The Beaver where Mel Gibson's character, Walter, has become something of a small-time media celebrity. This is due to his quirky success as a toy company executive who has a beaver hand-puppet do alll his talking and decision-making for him. The speaker, a radio presenter, represents a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the public - they don't get that it's symptomatic of an underlying illness and not a ploy for attention, and this is part of what this film is all about. It's a metaphor for the way a lot of people don't really understand the full extent of depression, bi-polar and other forms of widespread mental illness.

When I first heard about this movie I thought the Beaver was going to be obnoxious and destructive in it's interaction with Walter, but it simply takes Walter's place. It's just there as a better and more functional version of Walter (albeit with a Ray Winstone-ish British accent). The film starts out as a black comedy (with Walter failing to hang himself, and showering with his puppet) but then it gets very, very dark and messed up. It's better than a cheap comedy. After a while the Beaver feels real, such is the depth of Gibson's performance in this strange role. It feels real.

After his recent media attention and public (mis)behaviour, it's been suggested that Gibson's career (especially as an actor) is nearly over. Much like Mickey Rourke with The Wrestler, Gibson lets art imitate life here to tap into a hitherto unseen vulnerability that combines his earlier 'man man' roles (Mad Max, Lethal Weapon) with real life experience and pain. Walter comes from a family with a history of suicide and depression, and is a man who has lost faith in himself in every way. Gibson really plays it to the wire and gives it all he's got, and I can only marvel at the way he effortlessly switches between this completely broken man and the charmingly rough but 'onest persona of the Beaver.

This film pays out a fantasy where depression can be combated by reinvention, and whilst that sounds irresponsible, it's actually a satire in that it shows the effects of depression through an exagerrated farce,. That's what I got out of it anyway. It uses this fantasy scenario to deconstruct the reality of depression in a way that's not usually made very clear in films. So when Walter finally realises that the only way to be rid of the Beaver (and truly get 'better') is to violently reject it, don't expect an ending in keeping with either traditional Hollywood narratives or realism. Jodie Foster uses this fable to show how people can be cut adrift in this modern society, unable to communicate with each other or even with themselves.

Oh yeah, I should've said that earlier. Jodie Foster directed this movie. She casts herself in the completely thankless role of Walter's wife, but this is most likely because it was the easiest way to retain directorial control of a role that needed to remain thankless. There's a subplot about Walter's eldest son (Anton Yelchin), an enterprising and confident young man with a talent for taking on the writing voices of other people, but I have to say that I would've preferred for the film to focus solely on Gibson. Sure, it links in with Gibson's part in that Jr. doesn't have a a true identity of his own because he's afraid of being like his father, but I'm just getting really tired to seeing films where high school kids talk and act like adults.

Anyway, if you're looking for something a bit different that features the (criminally underseen) performance of Gibson's life, then I highly recommend this thought-provoking and twisted dramedy.

DIRECTOR: Jodie Foster

WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Kyle Killen
KEY ACTORS: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Zachery Booth, Cherry Jones, Riley Thomas Stewart

RELATED TEXTS:

- Jodie Foster previously directed Home for the Holidays and Little Man Tate.
- Foster and Gibson also appeared together in Maverick.
- Gibson has also done mental illness/depression in Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Conspiracy Theory, Hamlet and The Man Without a Face.