Story
The Beaver is an unusual and intense movie about Walter Black (Mel Gibson). Walter is a successful business executive and father of two, who is struggling to live with severe mental illness. Walter’s wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster), is fed up with Walter’s emotional distance from her and their two children, Porter (Anton Yelchin) and Henry (Riley Stewart). She asks Walter to move out of the family home. Alone and desperately depressed, Walter hits rock bottom and tries to end his own life.
Walter’s turning point comes when he finds a beaver hand puppet in a rubbish bin. He discovers that he can better relate to and communicate with the people he loves while using the puppet. The beaver becomes Walter’s life support, and his life seems to be almost miraculously cured. But when Walter tries to separate himself from the beaver puppet and find his own voice again, things get complicated.
Themes
Suicide; mental illness; family breakdown
Violence
This movie has some violence. For example:
Sexual references
None of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie includes some use of substances. For example:
- Walter buys a case of alcohol and drinks too much.
- Meredith drinks a glass of wine with her dinner, but she doesn’t drink too much.
- Walter takes medications for his depression. In many scenes, it’s obvious that he’s taking too much medication.
- There’s a reference to Porter buying ‘weed’.
Nudity and sexual activity
This movie has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:
- Several brief scenes show the husband and wife having sex in bed and in the shower. The scenes aren’t very graphic and don’t show very much nudity.
- Porter kisses a girl he goes to school with.
Product placement
There is some product placement in this movie. Products featured include Apple Computers, Volkswagen cars, Toys R Us and GQ Magazine.
Coarse language
There is some coarse language in this movie.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Beaver is an intense exploration of one man’s struggle to deal with his severe mental illness and the way his illness affects his family. Despite the animal in the title and a puppet and child actors in the cast, this is definitely not a movie for children or younger teenagers.
If you have older adolescent children who see this movie, you could talk with them about how the movie presents mental illness, its management and its impact on family functioning, parent–child relationships and marital relationships.