Mel Gibson's troubled eyes tell the 'Beaver' story

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

Mel Gibson yearns to be understood, and in The Beaver he shows the strain.

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  By Ken Regan,, Summit Entertainment

  The beaver hand puppet is a savior for Walter (Mel Gibson), a man battling behavioral demons.

By Ken Regan,, Summit Entertainment

The beaver hand puppet is a savior for Walter (Mel Gibson), a man battling behavioral demons.

Yet, for the role of a profoundly depressed husband and father, his lined visage and troubled eyes work perfectly. In real life, Gibson has attributed his much publicized aggressive behavior to alcoholism and depression, and his character, Walter, struggles with the same demons.

Of course, his casting was hardly accidental: The director is pal Jodie Foster. Though this is fiction, it's easy to let what we know of reality bleed into our interpretation of the story.

The title refers to a hand puppet that Walter manipulates and speaks through so he can cope with his deep melancholy. Though the notion has its outlandishly comic aspect, the movie is more painfully sad than humorous.

Walter hits rock bottom after his wife, Meredith (Foster), walks out with their two sons. Filled with suicidal impulses and reeling boozily, he stumbles around his apartment and rescues a ratty-looking beaver hand puppet from the garbage. His savior is born as the beaver commits himself to lifting Walter out of his black hole.

As uneven as the film is, it might be Gibson's finest performance. We buy his tortured persona, but it's harder to accept how he quickly transforms from suicidal to jovial.

The Beaver
* * 1/2 out of four

Stars: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster,
Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence
Director: Jodie Foster
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, some disturbing content, sexuality and language including a drug reference
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Expands Friday nationwide

Foster brings a stately directorial style, but the material sometimes feels too flimsy to merit it. That near-glacial pacing makes it harder still to effectively mine the humor in this grim tale, which also involves the suffering of Meredith and the rage felt by son Porter ( Anton Yelchin).

Some of Gibson's best scenes involve reconnecting with his younger son (Riley Thomas Stewart), for whom the puppet suddenly makes his dad lovable in a way he had never been.

But the story lacks honesty. 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.

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