The Beaver 2011

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...the film has some bristling and moving scenes and certainly ends up being what you'd call a conversation starter. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A promising story about a madman and his puppet fast becomes a trite tale of a father and son as the combustible Mr. Gibson is tamped down... Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Viewers will have to check cartloads of baggage upon entering Jodie Foster's courageous, crazy-as-a-loon character study about a man having a major midlife meltdown. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie's glumness is in synch with Foster's performances over the last decade: It's as if she's decided that acting is something you mature beyond. Which I suspect had a dampening effect on Gibson's performance. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Delivers more than it promises-namely a performance that draws on exceptional skill as well as what one irresistibly takes to be the real-life anguish of a movie star whose own life has come to ruin. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: None of this sounds as if it should work for a second as drama, so great credit goes to Foster and the cast for keeping the story small, quiet and often very moving. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: While The Beaver starts with Gibson in What Women Want slapstick mode, it eventually goes to such exaggerated, extreme places that it becomes as much of a must-watch train-wreck as Gibson's own real-life situation. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Gibson's performance as Walter Black ranks among the best of his career. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's unclear what about life or depression Foster and Killen are really saying. A movie about a man hiding behind a puppet is also a story about a movie hiding behind its star. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This is often quite affecting for its portrait of midlife crisis and Gibson's personal investment in the role. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This strange, uncertain picture can't be dismissed. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I've rarely seen a movie about severe malcontents that ended on such a note of unearned uplift. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: You won't be the only one anticipating a car-crash appeal in The Beaver , that eerie sensation of not being able to look away from catastrophe. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The film is amusing, then melancholy, then weirdly funny, then not. It's a quiet, measured work. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The acting throughout -- Foster, Lawrence, Yelchin -- is superb, and this may well be Gibson's finest performance, just as it's Foster's most balanced job of directing. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Mel Gibson looks like hell in The Beaver. That's a compliment. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Navigates its tricky tone and subject matter in a sweet, memorable fashion. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Less nutty and more moving than its premise suggests, Jodie Foster's on-target dramedy transcends its real-world baggage. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: An emotional runaway of a film that carries neither the insight nor the uplift to make the weight of its dark journey worth it. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: I respected The Beaver for having the conviction to treat mental illness seriously and without compromise. But did it have to be so maudlin, too? Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: As director, Foster, working with Kyle Killen's screenplay, treats the goofy premise with a literal earnestness -- as a family drama about separation and reunion -- that seems all wrong. A little wit would have helped. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Admittedly, Gibson is very good as the deeply disturbed hero - particularly as he sits alone slugging vodka or mourning the loss of his family's love. But is this really acting? Is it even a performance? Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: In The Beaver, a stately family drama with a black comedy struggling to break free from within, Mel Gibson deploys a seemingly magical hand puppet -- plus more charm than he's allowed out in public in years. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: With The Beaver, Gibson shows that for all his personal turmoil, he still may have a career in the twilight years. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Though Kyle Killen's script becomes trite and predictable, Gibson delivers in an uncompromising way. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Even as Kyle Killen's script becomes ever more implausible and ultimately ridiculous, it's impossible to take your eyes off the screen when the tortured and ill-looking Gibson is center stage. Read more

Rex Reed, New York 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. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: That this ambitious, if deeply odd, film is so compulsively watchable is a credit to Gibson's compelling performances, both as spiritless Walter and the Cockney-accented voice of the tireless title character. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Brilliant film by Jodie Foster, with Oscar-level performances. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Beaver" is almost successful, despite the premise of its screenplay, which I was simply unable to accept. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: If you can get past your feelings for the troubled Gibson, you get to watch a high-wire performance of the highest caliber. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I don't know whether Gibson is Method-acting out of his own psychology or is just a brilliant mimic, but it's tough to resist the conclusion that this guy knows what it's like to look in the mirror and not quite recognize the person he sees there. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Is Gibson showing us the character or himself or some combination of the two? You decide. But whoever that is onscreen, it's the saddest man in the world. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: If you continue to be fascinated by this talented, volatile, messed-up man, it's worth experiencing what may be Gibson's finest performance to date. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: If anyone can see past the suggestive title, the oddball premise and the controversial casting of this film, they might be surprised to find it surprisingly tolerable. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Beaver" isn't a perfect film, but it's challenging and original. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Sure, there's lots of pretense but it's all the wrong kind -- just silliness posing as sensitivity pretending to be art. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: It's a bummer of a movie -- dark and at cross-purposes with both itself and any image do-over [Gibson] might be seeking. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The Beaver is serious about portraying mental illness. And whatever your opinion about Gibson the man, so is Gibson the actor. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Beyond the initial idea, this is kid gloves filmmaking, when what we need is a bit more of the gloves-off stuff. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The entire cast delivers, but none more so than Gibson. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: 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. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: [Gibson] 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/ Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Mel's character isn't on Prozac, but the movie is -- a succession of bland camera setups, cued to a highly conventional score. Would that the direction were half as nutty as the script or as wacked-out as its star! Read more

Jen Chaney, Washington Post: Despite some missteps, this film stands as a moving portrait of a husband and father who reclaims his will to live with the unlikely help of a hand puppet. And the main reason it's so moving? Mel Gibson. Read more