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The Beaver
Walter Black, the head of a failing toy company, is deeply depressed. His marriage to Meredith is broken and his oldest son, Porter, hates him. Walter then adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating.
30 December 1957, New York City, New York, USA
11 March 1989, Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]
11 January 1950, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
28 November 1962, New York City, New York, USA
28 January 1966, New York City, New York, USA
17 September 1971, New Hampshire, USA
October 02, 2012
A unique and thoughtful project that showcases a charming, as well as unconventional, character journey -- and one of Gibson's best roles to date.
May 20, 2011
For a film about the real problem of mental illness, it never feels authentic. Depression is not something neatly tied up. If this is meant as an allegory, it's vague and unconvincing.
May 20, 2011
The film is amusing, then melancholy, then weirdly funny, then not. It's a quiet, measured work.
January 14, 2013
Mel Gibson's last hurrah
June 22, 2013
Thinks it's a whimsical tale of a man finding himself, but Gibson thinks it's the tale of a man losing his mind.
May 12, 2015
It doesn't quite work, but it does provide something of a cinematic exorcism for the public's increasingly conflicted relationship with Gibson.
June 15, 2011
Beyond the initial idea, this is kid gloves filmmaking, when what we need is a bit more of the gloves-off stuff.
June 02, 2013
Jodie Foster's The Beaver had its moments, but the overall premise just didn't fly. I just couldn't buy the idea of the talking puppet.
May 20, 2011
The acting throughout -- Foster, Lawrence, Yelchin -- is superb, and this may well be Gibson's finest performance, just as it's Foster's most balanced job of directing.
May 20, 2011
With The Beaver, Gibson shows that for all his personal turmoil, he still may have a career in the twilight years.
October 07, 2011
It's a bummer of a movie -- dark and at cross-purposes with both itself and any image do-over [Gibson] might be seeking.
March 14, 2016
The quirky concept and Gibson's powerhouse performance give The Beaver unexpected resonance.