This is a picture of Walter Black...

Title: The Beaver

Year: 2011
Synopsis: Walter Black is hopelessly depressed, after pills, books and professionals fail to help him he loses hope and sleeps, a lot. When he is eventually thrown out by his long-suffering wife, Walter finds a beaver puppet in a dumpster and so begins a very strange relationship between a man and his puppet.

I'm still torn over this film, the first half was so absorbing that if it wasn't for the fact that film4od was streaming slower than a dead sloth then I might have forgotten I was even watching a film. Sadly the second half was not as interesting, and I felt that the story missed its true potential. However overall I think depression was portrayed very accurately sensitively. Walter had truly hit rock bottom once he was thrown out of his marital bed, and the family home by wife Meredith (Jodie Foster - who also directed). He tries to kill himself using his tie and the shower curtain and when that fails, tries to jump off the balcony, all the time wearing the puppet on his left arm.

It's only when the puppet speaks that Walter falls (conveniently backwards) and so begins the strange hold Beaver has over Walter. The Beaver has (imo) a great voice, it is of course Mel Gibson's who speaks in a gravelly British accent, there's an instant connection between the puppet and the audience.

Depression is an illness that affects not only the sufferer but his or her loved ones, and all those that share a close connection with them. The film showed this in Walter's wife who after losing her husband to his condition, engrossed herself in her engineering work, designing rollercoasters (strange yes, but there's a very befitting scene at the end where the family are on one). His oldest son, Porter (played by Anton Yelchin) is very articulate but desperate to become anyone but his father. He sticks post-it notes to his wall listing the similarities between his father and himself and aims to eradicate them one by one. We also learn that Porter struggles to deal with his father's issues, and has covered a rather large dent in his bedroom wall. I guess we all feel like banging our heads against a wall at some point.

Walter's youngest son Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart) is an outcast at school, bullied and even missed by his mother (she drives past him each time she goes to collect him from school). Porter's relationship with his father is tenuous at best, and certainly doesn't get better when the Beaver shows up. However, Henry takes to him straight away, and when Meredith finds them hard at work in the garage making a memory box, puppet or no puppet, she believes she might finally get the man she fell in love with back once more.

It's around here that the story beings to falter, there are too many ups and downs with twists and turns that the plot doesn't really need. Even so, at first the Beaver becomes a massive help to Walter, he returns to work with a plan, and a successful one at that, spurred by a late night workshop session with his younger son. Things pick up with Meredith, and I was hoping that the Beaver would melt into surplus.

Sadly, things take another turn and nose-dive. Meredith, unable to bear the fact she's living with a man who has a puppet attached to him 24/7 causes a scene at their anniversary dinner culminating with Walter walking away and this time she leaves their home with the boys to live in a flat.

All through the film the story cuts to Porter and his school-life, he writes papers for people for $200 a pop, when he's approached by Norah (Jennifer Lawrence) to write the graduation speech for their year. Turns out Porter has had a crush on her for a long time, and jumps at the chance of spending time with her. She turns out to be quite deep, certainly more so than her character gives off at first and was arrested for tagging (graffiti) around the city (hardcore!). Her brother OD'd, and she doesn't tag any more because of that. It ties in quite nicely with the depression theme, and helps to solidify the story, and as she says in her speech at the end, a lot of people lie to you by saying 'everything is going to be ok'.

Porter takes Norah to a place he found with a huge wall just waiting to be tagged. When she refuses and Porter sprays RIP Brian (her dead brother) Norah gets really angry and they argue. Things don't get better when a cop shows up and they get arrested. Talk about history repeating itself!

With Norah no longer talking to him, and a father who only communicates through a puppet it's no huge surprise that Porter too becomes depressed, doing what his father did and sleeping much of the time.

By now, Walter has reached the pinnacle of the Beaver's use, despite doing a great job of pulling his company from the brink of collapse with a construction toy with the Beaver's visage that goes global. His TV appearance, and what happens next plunges the toy into a steep decline. Walter tries to escape him by calling Meredith. However he's caught red handed and is 'beaten up' by the Beaver. It's harrowing stuff really, but I couldn't help but laugh, the puppet is actually quite comical-looking. Anyway, post-beating Walter is in his shed, building nothing other than a puppet-sized coffin. What comes next really really shocked me, I was expecting him to wrench the puppet away, and maybe bury the coffin, perhaps even set it on fire. But no, instead, Walter actually cuts off his hand! The audience doesn't actually see it, but the screams area enough.

Post surgery, Walter has a new bionic hand, and Porter has an epiphany. The end of the film centres around the poignant speech that Norah delivers, even admitting that she did not write it. Porter and his father plant the first seeds of a relationship and the film ends with them on a roller coaster.

"This is a picture of Walter Black, who had to become The Beaver, who had to become a father, so that one day this might just become a picture of Walter Black."

Very poignant stuff! And despite your opinion of Mel Gibson and recent reports, no one can fault his ability. So, despite a great start and a bit of a wobbly finish it's a bold and brave insight into the perils and dark corners of depression, and I urge anyone who wants to actually watch something different to give it a try.

A well deserved 8/10.