The Beaver (2011)

Despite our disgust for Mel Gibson, Jack and I were curious about Jodie Foster's casting him as a man who, after a breakdown, can communicate only via a beaver hand puppet. We were surprisingly impressed. Gibson clearly can still act, Foster definitely can direct and act, and Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence are wonderful as their son Porter and his schoolmate Norah, respectively. Gibson is reprehensible in real life (this link doesn't include the anti-Semitic part, only the misogynistic part) (if I had seen the link before the movie we might not have gone) but we like Foster and the movie really holds together. A crazy man can play a crazy man in this case. I liked his old work (Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Mrs. Soffel (1984), the Lethal Weapon series (1987, 89, 92, 98--crazy there, too), Braveheart (1995) which won him Director and Best Picture Oscars, What Women Want (2000)), oh, and I went to the same chiropractor as he did in Studio City and later Sherman Oaks (that guy was a jerk, too--go figure--so I switched to another person in the practice). Anyway, let's hope his profits go to a good cause, such as battered women. Not that there are likely to be many residuals. When we saw it Wednesday, it had four or five screenings per day at only one theatre. Starting the next day, it's now down to one morning show per day at that same place. Apparently Gibson wasn't her first choice. Imdb reports that both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell were attached, and that the movie had been "shelved" due to Gibson's alleged assault of his ex-girlfriend. Oy, I'm beginning to feel sick.

On to Foster (Oscar nominations for Taxi Driver (1976) when she was 14 and Nell (1994) which she considers her best role, and Oscars for The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)--I also really liked The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), Five Corners (1987), Contact (1997), Panic Room (2002), The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002), Inside Man (2006), as well as her previous directing work Little Man Tate (1991) and Home for the Holidays (1995)) whose acting part as the loyal but frazzled wife is small but mighty. Screenwriter Kyle Killen, in his feature debut after writing the TV series Lone Star, has crafted a wonderfully conflicted role for Yelchin (I wrote about him in Star Trek), the angry Porter. His curly hair shorn to a buzzcut, Yelchin gives us bitterness, hope, intelligence, and redemption in his relationships with his father and Norah, played by the lovely and intense Lawrence (deservingly Oscar-nominated for Winter's Bone). Also worth mentioning is adorable little Riley Thomas Stewart as little brother Henry. His lines and actions are well written and performed.

Perhaps the best path would be for you to see it free somewhere so Gibson doesn't profit. Your choice, as always. But Foster has made a good movie here, which also includes a rare sighting of the face of radio interviewer Terry Gross from WHYY's Fresh Air.