First Hit: An intense, well-acted and dark film which does bring some light to depression.
I was slightly amused at “dark film which does bring some light to depression”.
There is little lightness to depression but this film does bring this difficult state of mind into focus. As one who has gone through bouts of depression, the emptiness, listlessness, and lack of seeing any way out is powerfully embodied by Walter Black (played by Mel Gibson).
I’m sure anyone who lives with depression experiences it, or has it manifest, in differing ways. Here all Walter wants to do is sleep. His therapy is not helping nor are the pills given to him by the medical community. We only get small glimpse that he was once seen or perceived as happy through stories by his wife Meredith (played by Jodie Foster).
However, Walter is head of a family toy company that is going down the tubes. His wife supports him but only as she wants him to be. His older son Porter (played by Anton Yelchin) resents his father and is afraid he is turning out like him. He keeps sticky notes on the wall in his room listing all the similarities he has with his dad.
Walter’s youngest son Henry (played by Riley Thomas Stewart) feels invisible to everyone. This point is poorly demonstrated by his mother driving past her son when she goes to pick him up from school each day. Meredith kicks Walter out of the house and he ends up in a hotel with a few of his belongings, including a beaver hand puppet.
He drinks himself into a functional stupor and attempts to hang himself on the shower rod, but it fails. The puppet, on his hand, wakes him up with a different Aussie accent and begins to tell him that he should listen to The Beaver (puppet). The Beaver then becomes his constant companion talking in a live voice that has him engaging with the world.
He re-engages with his wife and youngest son and the people at work. The company becomes more successful because of an idea Henry and The Beaver tell him. Walter (and The Beaver) end up on talk shows but always with The Beaver talking. Meredith wants to have dinner with Walter but not The Beaver and it becomes disastrous.
In the end Walter has to take back his own life from The Beaver by severing their relationship and be open to his family seeing all of him again.
Gibson is either one of the greatest actors ever or he has a close relationship with depression. Regardless, to put that character up on the screen and make it real was powerful. Foster as his wife was good, but her tightness over rode a tender softness that also needed surfacing. However as director of this film she was fabulous. Yelchin as the older son who was living in fear that he’d become like his father was outstanding. Stewart was perfect as the young son that just believes that his dad is OK regardless if he’s the Beaver or not. Kyle Killen wrote a strong and risky screenplay that would have failed under another director and actor’s hands. Foster as I said was brilliant directing this cast and her understanding of the script.
Overall: This isn’t a pick-me-up type film but it is a very strong film about what many people struggle with.