The Beaver
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: May 6, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
17
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 5, 2011
I suppose the perfect ending to the chapter would be to report that The Beaver is a masterpiece. It isn't quite, but it does offer an astonishing and resonant performance by Gibson, who spends most of the movie playing two simultaneous characters, often in the same shot. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 24, 2011
The Beaver also has a tendency to slip around as it finds its footing. But then the powerful third act comes and Foster, with Gibson's help, hits it home. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMay 18, 2011
An often moving and always disturbing film. Little is explained, motivations aren't explored. We miss them, at times. It's still a film of power, wit and thought-provoking ideas, one well worth seeing. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMay 12, 2011
The Beaver isn't a perfect film, but it's challenging and original. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyMay 12, 2011
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 full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMay 6, 2011
This bizarre little movie is all over the place as drama - but genuinely compelling as a one-of-a-kind piece of public self-flagellation. Read full review
75
NPRElla TaylorMay 6, 2011
The Beaver is at its core a classically Oedipal tale. While one son angles in all the wrong ways for his abject father's attention, another engages in a heroic struggle with his abusive bully of a dad. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 5, 2011
The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster from a script by fearless first-timer Kyle Killen, is operating on a plane far above multiplex formula. This flawed but heartfelt movie has the power to sneak up and floor you. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedMay 4, 2011
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 full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 3, 2011
With tightly controlled performances and uniquely eccentric events, The Beaver is mainly undone by the lack of a satisfying outcome. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 19, 2011
Gibson's performance, at times subtle, at times showy and never less than remarkable, is what makes The Beaver worth seeing. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 5, 2011
Bizarre and belabored, yet grimly fascinating. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderBen SachsMay 5, 2011
Most of the observations about suburban malaise (down to the Ayn Rand-style, self-empowering "solutions") suggest "American Beauty." Yet this is often quite affecting for its portrait of midlife crisis and Gibson's personal investment in the role. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMay 5, 2011
Foster's performance is crisp and forthright and surprisingly moving. There's something affecting about watching this disciplined, no-nonsense actress deliver her lines to a hand puppet - she's always game, if not exactly relaxed. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsMay 5, 2011
The Beaver is serious about portraying mental illness. And whatever your opinion about Gibson the man, so is Gibson the actor. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 2, 2011
A risky bet that pays off solidly, Jodie Foster's much-delayed The Beaver survives its life/art parallels -- thanks to its star, Mel Gibson -- to deliver a hopeful portrait of mental illness that is quirky, serious and sensitive. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonMay 5, 2011
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 full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 4, 2011
This is high-quality work from a professional (Gibson) who, news reports have suggested, has recently sunk to terrible lows in his nonprofessional life. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 18, 2011
The film has a huge heart, and it's in the right place. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 19, 2011
The story lacks honesty. 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 full review
63
Washington PostJen ChaneyMay 5, 2011
In a triumph of cinema over celebrity gossip, The Beaver mostly makes us forget about Gibson's madman persona and simply draws us into the story that he and director Jodie Foster, who also plays Walter's wife, Meredith, want to tell. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 5, 2011
Director Jodie Foster's film reasserts the feverish, defiant, often gripping talent of actor Mel Gibson. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 5, 2011
As good as Gibson is, his character is still caught between the tragedy of the man and the absurdity of the Beaver. Fugitive thoughts of Señor Wences crept into my mind. I'm sorry, but they did. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineDavid EhrlichJun 18, 2011
An awkward stew between "American Beauty" and "Harvey" that only touches a nerve at the eleventh hour. Read full review
60
EmpireWilliam ThomasJun 13, 2011
Don't expect the puppet to wisecrack - there's more pain here than in "The Passion Of The Christ." It never quite comes together in a satisfying way, but it's still a brave, strange, brain-stirring piece of filmmaking. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 6, 2011
Oddly engrossing, off-kilter drama. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearMay 3, 2011
Gibson simply turns his signature righteous rage into a crushing inward sorrow-Sad Max?-and Foster boldly plays everything straight, rendering her actor's unnerving turn to mania (and a pitch-black third act) with zero tongue-in-cheek. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 18, 2011
The Beaver plays like a thickly veiled confessional and plea for forgiveness. It's too creepy for comfort. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 12, 2011
The storyline would appear trite and the message muddled even to someone who'd never heard the name Mel Gibson. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 12, 2011
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 full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMay 6, 2011
Clearly, the screenplay is looking for some black comedy here, but Foster's direction is too earnest to locate it. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 5, 2011
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 full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 5, 2011
Nasty, brutish and as cuddly as a crusty old sock fished out of a sewer, the beaver or the beav, as I like to think of him, owns the film. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMay 5, 2011
The most provocative thing about The Beaver is the adult-movie title. The film itself is alternately fascinating and dull, though mostly the latter. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 5, 2011
Foster commendably stretches beyond her comfort zone with The Beaver, but in the end the film's high-concept premise is at war with its conventional direction. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanMay 3, 2011
Perhaps that's the problem. 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 full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 2, 2011
Gibson is better in the later scenes, when Walter tries to escape the Beaver's nefarious influence. And Gibson's never bad. It's just that we know how much is missing. As a raging nutcase, he's capable of so much more. Read full review
50
VarietyAndrew BarkerMay 2, 2011
The troubled actor 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, and ends up producing a film that's deeply strange, yet incapable of leaving an impression. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 6, 2011
Foster seems blinkered and tone-deaf to what's actually appearing onscreen. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 2, 2011
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 full review
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