The Beaver ☆☆☆½

Okay so I'll be honest here, when I saw the trailer for this film a couple of years ago I giggled quite a bit.
For one, it's called 'The Beaver' and no matter how much I believe I am a sensible grown-up that made me laugh. Second, it's Mel Gibson communicating with the world through a puppet with a dodgy cockney Aussie accent.

But then I saw The Hunger Games and, let's face it, fell in love with Jennifer Lawrence. Those who read this blog will know what a girl crush I have on Emma Stone but I'm afraid her time has come, I still love Emma but there is a bright shiny new thing in the playground now.

So of course I looked at Lawrence's filmography and low and behold there was The Beaver. So I decided in my fickle way that now it was deemed worthy to watch.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. My reason may have been Lawrence but I kept watching because of Anton Yelchin (Star Trek XI). He is superb as the son of Mel Gibson's chronically depressed CEO of a failing toy company.

The story follows this family of Gibson, Yelchin, Jodie Foster as mum and a sweet little actor called Riley Tomas Stewart struggling to cope with the fathers depression. I don't know enough about depression to comment but what the film seems to suggest is that it can be genetic. Gibson's father took his own life because of it, and now his son is starting to display similar traits.

Foster has finally kicked out her husband because of the negative effect living with an effectively comatose person brings, and this is when Gibson finds in a dumpster a hand puppet.

The story then follows him speaking through the puppet in order to communicate where previously he was mute. He rebuilds a relationship with his wife and youngest son, but not with the elder. He even manages to resurrect his fathers toy company.

However this is not a fun story of a man and his puppet. It is a dark and twisted tale of a husband and father losing his mind and his family. It is incredibly moving, but like I said it is the eldest son who really focussed my attention.

The tension of living with a depressed parent is felt through his rebellion of writing other people's papers for money. I've read articles where depression has been linked to hyper intelligence, so the knot of worry about this fictional boy was formed quite early on in my stomach.

Yelchin's performance is utterly believable, his budding romance with the class valedictorian (Lawrence) is older beyond their years because both have become somewhat jaded by life experience, though only 18 they could be a pair of 40 year olds. I think the film is entirely worth watching for Yelchin, you grow concerned about his welfare as though you are actually part of his life.

Mel Gibson, as much as I'd like to despise him, is convincing as a man entirely lost and on the edge of sanity. Jodie Foster is her usual consummate performer self, I will always prefer her Tallulah to anything else but she has a dual purpose here as she also directs. The story is deftly woven together, though by far my favourite actor is the older son, the whole family unit are given enough time to tell their story.

The film is unforgiving. It does not pander to one or the other opinion on depression but accepts how truly destructive it can be. It is not a laughing matter, and yet this does not prevent humour arising from it. This is healthy, if depression is to be conquered it cannot only be associated with the depths of despair. With laughter comes hope, and it's when the puppet starts to make you the viewer feel sad that the story shows the power of the mind, it can split us when it can't cope anymore, but that other side can also take over.

A total surprise but worth watching, I would be interested to know if people out there who have been affected by depression feel this film is in any way relevant or accurate.