Review Round-Up: So What Did SXSW Critics Think of The Beaver?

While audiences nationwide will have to wait even longer to see how Mel Gibson fares as a man who depends on a beaver hand puppet to get through a mid-life crisis, a handful of critics saw Jodie Foster's The Beaver last night at SXSW. According to the early word, it looks like anyone hoping for unbridled insanity or off-the-wall comedy will have to wait for an SNL parody. But what did critics think of the movie on its own terms?

Since there are so many problems in the world right now, let's start with the positive! A few critics seemed genuinely impressed and moved by Foster's film, citing only the caviat that it is seriously not the wacky comedy many hoped for. Said Hitflix's Drew McWeeny:

The Beaver is not a comedy, it's true, but it is a deft exploration of the ways we struggle to express something as ineffable as depression, and the lengths we will endure to save our families. It is a potent reminder of why jodie Foster should have made more movies by now. And it is a strong beginning for screenwriter Kyle Killen.

John Defore at The Hollywood Reporter also gave props to the way Foster handled such challenging material:

It's very easy to imagine a less gifted filmmaker producing a train wreck of a film using an identical script -- exaggerating the highs, compartmentalizing the lows and casting a mawkish eye on everything from Walter's youngest child to his ever-present suffering. Foster finds the script's subtleties instead, and grounds the film with just enough pain to make it work. Viewers who can shake off tabloid preoccupations as they settle into the film will likely be surprised by a picture that (in a way reminiscent of Lars and the Real Girl) turns a crazy-sounding premise into something moving and sane.

That said, while most critics seemed to admit that the material was challenging, the general consensus seems to fall directly in the middle of the road. As Jordan Hoffman at UGO writes, "The Beaver is certainly a gutsy movie, but I don't think it is quite as groundbreaking as its director thinks it is. It also has plenty of dull patches."

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere seems even more bored with the film, saying, "The Beaver is all right, not bad, a decent film, a respectable film...but nobody's going to do cartwheels over it."

And then, in case you weren't already afraid of falling asleep, Catherine Shoard at The Guardian writes an evenhanded review, only to end with, "The Beaver may flash its teeth from time to time, but deep down, it's tamer than Orville."

That said, almost every review had positive things to say about Gibson's performance. Andrew Barker at Variety notes that while the film is uneven, "The troubled actor delivers a performance very few could pull off." And then Eric Kohn's review for Indiewire backs this up with some examples that sound, frankly, pretty interesting to watch:

"His solo scenes are both absurd and darkly unsettling for several reasons, some of which depend on your tolerance for watching the notoriously bad-tempered actor, well, lose his temper: Whether awkwardly failing to hang himself in a bathtub or beating himself up with a guitar, Gibson demonstrates an expansive madness that suggests a much darker, more involving psychological transition."

So far the only totally negative reviews have appeared on Twitter. That said, they're pretty brutal. To wit:

Peter Sciretta at Slash Film: "Predictable, ridiculous, melodramatic. Gibson & Foster have good performances but it's just a mess. Didnt connect with any of the characters."

Kate Erbland at Gordon and the Whale: "THE BEAVER doesn't know what it wants to be and, paired with an unsympathetic main character, steadily grew into a film I hated."

Once again, that wide release date is now May 20.