The Beaver 2011 PG-13 91 minutes
No one does crazy better than Mel Gibson. Maybe it takes one to play one but he inhabits insanity so totally in this film that it’s hard to know where Gibson leaves off and the character he plays, depressed businessman Walter Black, begins.
This not the feel good film of the year. It’s dark, nearly as depressing as Walter is and it has one very understated but well done gruesome scene.
Jodie Foster (Home for the Holidays 1991, Little Man Tate 1988, Tales from the Darkside (TV series) – Do Not Open This Box (1988) ) directs as well as playing Blacks long-suffering wife, Meridith. The film is workmanlike and easy to watch but is nothing special in the director department.
It won’t win any awards and it’s not box office catnip but it does explore some interesting themes and even though I personally find the ending to be a cop out, it is overall a good waste of 90 minutes.
It would have been better if the voice of the beaver was done by Sir Michael Caine. Just my opinion. Gibson did it, in case you were wondering.
