Synopsis
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter pushes for his parents to get a divorce.
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Cast
- Mel GibsonWalter Black
- Jodie FosterMeredith Black
- Jennifer LawrenceNorah
- Anton YelchinPorter Black
- Zachary BoothJared
- Riley Thomas StewartHenry Black
- Kelly Coffield ParkNorah's Mom
- Cherry JonesVice President
- Jeff CorbettVolunteer Dad
- Baylen ThomasSkeptical Man
Recommendations
- 75
IndieWire
With tightly controlled performances and uniquely eccentric events, The Beaver is mainly undone by the lack of a satisfying outcome. - 75
Observer
Whatever you think of Mr. Gibson, whatever he has lost, he still has talent, and here displays acting of power and resonance. It's a pleasure, for a change, to see the best side of his split personality at work. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
A risky bet that pays off solidly, Jodie Foster's much-delayed The Beaver survives its life/art parallels -- thanks to its star, Mel Gibson -- to deliver a hopeful portrait of mental illness that is quirky, serious and sensitive. - 70
Movieline
Foster's performance is crisp and forthright and surprisingly moving. There's something affecting about watching this disciplined, no-nonsense actress deliver her lines to a hand puppet - she's always game, if not exactly relaxed. - 67
Entertainment Weekly
This is high-quality work from a professional (Gibson) who, news reports have suggested, has recently sunk to terrible lows in his nonprofessional life. - 60
Time Out
Gibson simply turns his signature righteous rage into a crushing inward sorrow-Sad Max?-and Foster boldly plays everything straight, rendering her actor's unnerving turn to mania (and a pitch-black third act) with zero tongue-in-cheek. - 50
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Gibson is better in the later scenes, when Walter tries to escape the Beaver's nefarious influence. And Gibson's never bad. It's just that we know how much is missing. As a raging nutcase, he's capable of so much more. - 50
Variety
The troubled actor delivers a performance very few could pull off as a depressed father who begins communicating through a hand puppet, but Foster doesn't know how to manage it or navigate the script's seismic tonal shifts, and ends up producing a film that's deeply strange, yet incapable of leaving an impression.
