Leave it to Gibson to save disturbing 'Beaver'
I have thought for the longest time that Mel Gibson could be a basket case.
Not at the very first. Not back in his “Mad Max” and “Gallipoli” days.
But by the time he made the first “Lethal Weapon” movie, I began to be amazed at how effortlessly he could slip into unhinged characters and render them utterly real.
Since then, of course, Gibson's issues with alcohol, women and anti-Semitism have gone public, and those issues drastically altered the world's view of the actor dubbed 1985's Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.
Gibson's demons now inform his roles to an alarming extent. His on-target portrait of a mentally ill cabdriver in “Conspiracy Theory,” even his amoral avenger in “Ransom” take on deeper, more ominous dimensions with knowledge of his tormented personal life.
Fittingly, Gibson plays the most challenging character of his career in Jodie Foster's daring, damaged drama with the provocative title “The Beaver.”
Very few actors could play the role of Walter Black without alienating audiences, or “acting” crazy, or becoming inadvertently comical and winding up as the subject of a tart “SNL” skit.
Playing Walter Black is a tightrope act without a net.
And Gibson performs it with great commitment and eloquent grace.
“The Beaver” begins with voice-over narration from what sounds like a Cockney accent.
Walter, the voice explains, is the CEO of a tanking toy company, and a depressed father of a young boy Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart) and alienated teen Porter (Anton Yelchin). He's the withdrawn husband of Meredith (Foster), who finally throws him out of the house as a last desperate bid to save her family.
In a drunken stupor, Walter finds a dirty old beaver hand puppet in a trash bin right before he decides to commit suicide. He hears a voice just before he falls and blacks out.
When he awakes, the Beaver on his hand speaks to him. Then speaks for him.
Soon, the Beaver takes charge of Walter Black's damaged life. The Beaver is everything Walter has failed to be: caring, considerate, calculating and smart.
In short order, the puppet revives the failing toy company, re-connects young Henry with his father, attempts to patch things up with Porter (who hates his father so much, he keeps a wall of Post-it notes on similarities to his father that he must avoid).
Then, in one of the riskiest movie scenes ever attempted, The Beaver helps Walter revive his sexual interest in Meredith in a threesome that skirts complete absurdity.
There's no doubt that Walter is mentally ill. Clearly, he has split his ego off into an “other” to rescue the remnants of his crippled psyche.
Even so, Foster's biggest and unaccomplished challenge is knowing what to do with Gibson's fearless, frighteningly committed performance.
The first part of “The Beaver” suggests a hand puppet version of “Harvey,” a lighthearted romp with a thread of drama running through it.
Inexplicably, “The Beaver” lapses into psychological horror (think Anthony Hopkins in “Magic”), then devolves into sheer madness before finding a cathartic and stable ending.
Kyle Killen's script to “The Beaver” was listed as one of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays in 2008, because it was such a risky property to mount.
Despite the film's flailingly inconsistent tones and blunted emotional payoffs, Foster still finds the essence of each scene, and that makes the difference.
Besides, who would have thought the sexiest man alive in 1985 would become the craziest, most fearless actor alive in 2011?
<b>"The Beaver"</b>
★ ★ ★ ½
<b>Starring:</b> Mel Gibson, Anton Yelchin, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Lawrence
<b>Directed by:</b> Jodie Foster
<b>Other:</b> A Summit Entertainment release. At the ICON, River East 21 and Century Centre in Chicago and the Evanston Century 18. Rated PG-13 for language, sexual situations, violence. 91 minutes.