Jodie Foster’s The Beaver was one of the more controversial releases this year, thanks to the latest highly publicized incidents during the production surrounding its lead actor, Mel Gibson. Once Hollywood’s greatest working leading man, Gibson has descended to a new low in terms of public opinion. Yet in light of these incidents, he delivers his most personal performance yet in this movie.
Gibson plays Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed man, whose level of self-loathing has forced his wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster), to kick him out of the house. In a drunken haze, Walter find a beaver hand-puppet in a dumpster and takes it to his hotel. Walter attempts suicide in a moment of desperation, but is put off by the cockney accented voice of the beaver puppet, which proclaims is out to save his life. Hiding behind his newfound beaver puppet persona, he returns to life with confidence and swagger, though it causes confusion and frustration to those closest to him. Meanwhile, Walter’s awkward son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), makes money writing papers for kids a school. When the silently troubled head cheerleader at his school (Jennifer Lawrence) approaches him to write her graduation speech, he’s forced to face his own family issues while trying to help her tackle her own demons as well.
The Beaver has one of the most bizarre, interesting, and beautiful performances of Mel Gibson’s career. The vast majority of the film is spent with the actor in beaver-mode, as he skillfully belts out a cockney accent, along with perfect puppeteering to go with it. One could be forgiven for mistaking Mel’s accent for the voice of Ray Winstone. Gibson hides behind the puppet in what seems to be a defense mechanism in the movie’s toughest scenes, even when the film delves into truly strange territory, the man sells everything that’s going on with his performance.
Where The Beaver falters slightly is in the subplot with Porter. This portion of the movie is where it gets a bit too indie-cute, as Porter obsesses over the tics and mannerisms he shares with his father and posts them on his wall. His relationship with Jennifer Lawrence’s former street-artist turned valedictorian cheerleader rings false on paper, though Yelchin and Lawrence do a great job of selling this silly concept, which somehow seems more implausible than the idea of a grown man communicating through a beaver hand-puppet.
As far as the special features go, the Blu-ray offers a commentary track by Jodie Foster, two deleted scenes with optional commentary, and a short making-of documentary. When it comes to supplements, the main thing I want is a commentary track, unfortunately all commentaries are not created equal. Older films and releases from Criterion often have interesting and insightful commentaries to go with them, however commentaries for newer movies are often recorded before the film is released. What you usually get is a track that has the filmmakers and actors still in press-junket mode, they haven’t gained the distance from the film to properly talk about it, as the movie hasn’t had a life with the audience yet. Foster’s commentary track isn’t worthless like these tracks usually are, but it’s not terribly insightful beyond a few interesting tidbits about the performances and production design. Those expecting Foster to talk about Gibson’s personal life need not apply, as it is never brought up, which is to be expected.
The making-of is a standard, short-form doc that explores various elements of the movie quickly and efficiently. It’s the sort of promo documentary you expect from new movies, it has a few cool bits to impart but doesn’t really enhance the movie. I’ve never been a fan of deleted scenes, usually they’re sliced out for a reason, and here it’s easy to see why they were cut. The commentary by Foster on them briefly explains why they were cut, though she never calls them what they truly are: bad scenes. But who can blame her?
The Beaver is one of those interesting-yet-flawed oddities, one I’d recommend to everyone with a big asterisk. The presence of Mel Gibson will no doubt put off most, given how his popularity has fallen like a stone lately. I would ask those who boycott the work of Gibson to ask themselves if they have no problem watching the films of Roman Polanski. If the answer is “yes,” then congratulations, you’re a morally inconsistent person, and it’s time to rethink and realign that moral compass when it comes to your pop-culture consumption. Love him or hate him, Gibson’s performance in this movie says a lot about him in terms of where he is in his career. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here, if anywhere at all.
Other Noteworthy Releases
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: Morgan Spurlock returns with another documentary where he is the center of attention, rather than the subject he is supposedly documenting. The idea of financing a movie purely on product placement while calling attention to the role of advertising in media is a rich one, but Spurlock’s movies never go deeper than his affable hipster personality.
Troll Hunter: This foreign fantasy/horror faux-documentary has gotten some great buzz, while found footage movie are everywhere today, somehow throwing giant trolls in the mix colors me interested.
Win Win: Starring Paul Giamatti, this is the new film by Tom McCarthy, the guy known for understated dramas like The Station Agent and The Visitor. Christian Toto gave it a postive review.
Blitz: Jason Statham teams up with Paddy Considine in this gritty buddy-cop film.
Swingers: The indie cult classic comes to Blu-ray, not that I feel the urge to see it in high-def. I love this movie, but I’ll hang on to my DVD.
Available on Blu-ray
Rounders: John Dahl’s card-sharp movie starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton is an underrated late-nineties offering well worth seeing. It comes out on Blu-ray this week.
Available on Blu-ray
Secret Sunshine: South Korean cinema has been getting a lot of notice on the international stage lately, however it’s mostly the genre flicks like Oldboy and The Good, The Bad, The Weird that get all the buzz. This nuanced drama by Lee Chang-Dong is a welcome change of tone in terms of what we’re getting from South Korea on our side of the Pacific. Available from Criterion.
The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara: This box set of Kurahara’s work is being released under Criterion’s Eclipse imprint. This collects the director’s eclectic output from the sixties, which included his adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s Thirst For Love.
Available on DVD
Roger Corman’s Cult Classics – Sword and Sorcery Collection: This set includes four eighties sword & sorcery flicks produced by Corman, including Deathtalker, Deathstalker II, Barbarian Queen, and The Sorceress & The Barbarian Queen.
Available on DVD
Roger Corman’s Cult Classics – Women in Cages: Corman was well known for producing these sorts of odd sexploitation movies, this set includes The Big Bird Cage, Big Doll House, and Women in Cages. The first two were directed by Jack Hill, who was known for doing fun blaxploitation movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown.
This post originally appeared over at Parcbench
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