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“The Beaver” has the appeal of a scary movie, its concept — and, to boot, its star — so freakish that adrenaline-pumped discomfort seems guaranteed. You feel the need to brace yourself to watch it. Regrettably, though, the concept (a deeply depressed man talks through a beaver puppet to regain emotional traction) is about where the weirdness ends, as the film is written and directed not just to make matters relatable, but to water them down until they resemble every other three-act family dramedy. This is boilerplate dysfunction —with a bit of fuzzy flair.
There is, however, the element of Mel Gibson’s lead performance, within which the movie is great. A weathered eccentric whose forehead and cheek wrinkles now form an X across his face, Gibson has gone from action star to fine actor to conversation piece, and his off-screen depravity has only made him a more magnetic camera subject. Utilizing his native Australian accent to speak for the Beaver (which his toy-making character, Walter, finds in a dumpster), Gibson breathes his usual fire, but he shows crushing vulnerability, graceful warmth and limber range. Inside his star turn lies all that this movie could have been.
Outside of it, mediocrity reigns supreme. Director Jodie Foster plays Walter’s desperate wife, and while it’s touching how willingly the cure-seeking woman embraces her husband’s new medicine, it’s striking how flat Foster renders her own character, as if mindful not to upset the Gibson showcase. Anton Yelchin is competent as the eldest of Walter’s two boys, but the father-son strife — usually an insta-tearjerker for yours truly — is as benign and predictable as the scowlful teen’s romance with a secretly artsy cheerleader (Jennifer Lawrence).
Screenwriter Kyle Killen — whose script long held the top spot on Hollywood’s blacklist of unproduced screenplays — deserves kudos for penning a movie whose villain is the very modern malady of clinical depression. But it’s a shame such courage was in such short supply, as “The Beaver” is an ostensible oddity trapped in a cage, begging to be more wild and woolly.
The Beaver
PG-13
Two reels out of four
Now playing at the Ritz Bourse
The Royal Wedding: William & Catherine
Not rated
Available Tuesday
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