The Beaver (2011) * *

Directed by:  Jodie Foster

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Lawrence, Anton Yelchin

Jodie Foster is nothing if not a loyal friend.     She cast her friend and Maverick (1994) co-star Mel Gibson in the lead of her film, The Beaver, while he was persona non grata in Hollywood due to drunken anti-Semitic tirades and vicious leaked phone battles with his ex-girlfriend.     He is an extremely talented actor and an Oscar-winning director.     He is the best thing about The Beaver, which was a tenuous idea that flies off the rails.     Let's face it, how much can be done with a story about a man who wears a beaver puppet on his left hand and speaks to people through it?      What starts out as serious drama ends up as a quasi-horror film akin to Child's Play.    

Gibson stars as Walter Black, a businessman so depressed that he has alienated his family and allows his business to go in the toilet.     One day, he winds up with a beaver puppet on his hand and he can suddenly communicate with others, but only as the beaver (who picks up an English accent).      To his wife Meredith (Foster) and his children, this is a welcome respite from the silent, depressed Walter.     Hey, at least he's talking.     Soon, he is taking the beaver everywhere with him and even to bed with Meredith.     It's about as awkward as it sounds.     His business thrives to the point where he is a Today Show guest with beaver firmly entrenched on his left hand.     I'm sure it began to stink after a while.

Gibson and Foster take this material seriously and make a go of an odd premise.     It may have sounded better on paper than fleshed out on screen, but I don't see how.     The fact that it was made with Mel Gibson starring is something of a minor miracle.     This is mostly because of Gibson's lack of marketability which is still true today.     How many movies has Mel Gibson starred in within the last five years?     Especially in a leading role?    

It is a pity how Gibson's battles with alcoholism has derailed his career.     The Beaver proves that he can elevate even material as shaky as this..    He is still filthy rich, but no longer an A-lister.    He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Braveheart and fifteen years later was starring in The Beaver.    The movie would most likely not have been made if not for Foster's (and Gibson's) participation.   

The Beaver takes an even stranger turn when The Beaver persona (and the puppet itself) threatens to engulf Walter and he must battle it in order to regain his grip on reality.     Walter's family is happy at first with The Beaver, but soon things become creepy and they are alienated again.     The battles with The Beaver are not just figurative.     Walter has to physically stop the puppet from trying to kill him.    This is resolved in such an extreme fashion that we just throw in the towel on the movie's credibility.     Our happiness can only be limited when we see Walter in the final shot on a rollercoaster minus a body part.