Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Beaver (2011)

Some movies, you read the description of them and think to yourself, “There’s no way in hell that’s going to work.” For example, 2011’s THE BEAVER, in which Mel Gibson plays the deeply depressed owner of a toy company who begins to talk through a beaver hand puppet and so reconnects with his wife (Jodie Foster, who also directed) and their two sons. Also, there’s a romance of sorts between the nerdy high school age son (Anton Yelchin) and a beautiful cheerleader (a very young Jennifer Lawrence). I fully expected that we’d watch maybe 30 minutes of this, tops, and then say “Nope.”

Instead, it’s kind of, well, not bad. It’s funny in places, the cast is good, and while things could have moved along a little faster, Foster’s direction holds it all together well. No matter what Mel Gibson is like in real life, I enjoy his work on-screen, and I’ve liked Foster since she was a kid in various Disney movies. THE BEAVER isn’t a great movie, but I enjoyed it enough to keep watching and wound up liking it.