The Beaver
“Sometimes finding your voice means letting somebody else do the talking.”
Director
Jodie Foster
Release
6 May 2011
Runtime
91 Minutes
Certificate
12
Synopsis
Walter Black has reached a point where almost everything in his life appears to be slipping away. Once the successful head of a toy company, he now struggles to get through the day. His wife Meredith has tried to support him, but Walter's condition has placed enormous strain on their marriage. His teenage son, Porter, desperately wants to avoid becoming anything like his father. Eventually Meredith tells Walter to leave. Alone and at rock bottom, Walter discovers a discarded beaver hand puppet. He puts it on. And the Beaver begins talking. Through the puppet, Walter suddenly finds himself capable of saying things he couldn't say before. He returns to his family and explains that the Beaver is part of a method he's using to rebuild his life. Remarkably, it seems to work. Walter becomes energetic again. His relationship with his younger son improves. His toy company gets an unexpected new idea, and his marriage begins to show signs of recovery. But Walter isn't simply using the Beaver anymore. He's becoming dependent upon it. Meanwhile, Porter fights his own battle with his father's legacy while developing a relationship with fellow student Norah. Both father and son ultimately face the same uncomfortable question: Can you really build a new life without confronting the parts of yourself you've been trying to escape?
The Movie Trailer
The Beaver is an unusual, deeply personal drama about a man who discovers an unexpected way to communicate with the world after his life begins to fall apart.
Walter Black was once a successful toy-company executive, husband and father.
Now he can barely function.
His business is struggling, his marriage is collapsing and his relationship with his eldest son has deteriorated to the point where the two can barely connect.
Then Walter finds a discarded beaver hand puppet.
What begins as an eccentric coping mechanism becomes something much bigger.
Speaking through the puppet allows Walter to communicate again. It gives him confidence, reconnects him with his family and even begins transforming his struggling company.
But the stronger Walter becomes through the Beaver, the harder it becomes to determine where the puppet ends and Walter begins.
The film's central premise and Walter's use of the puppet as his means of communication are reflected in both the Cannes and Apple descriptions.
THE PUPPET
Walter Finally Finds a Voice — It Just Isn't His Own
The strangest thing about Walter's relationship with the Beaver is how quickly something so absurd begins making sense to him.
Walter has spent so long unable to communicate that the puppet creates distance between him and everything he struggles to express.
Through the Beaver, he can talk to his children.
He can speak to Meredith.
He can walk back into his company and behave like the man who once ran it.
For a while, the puppet appears to be giving Walter his life back.
But every success creates another problem.
The more Walter depends on the Beaver to function, the less certain it becomes that he can function without it.
FATHER AND SON
Porter Is Terrified of Becoming His Dad
While Walter tries to rebuild himself, Porter is determined to become someone completely different.
His relationship with his father has deteriorated so badly that Porter actively looks for characteristics they share — and tries to remove them from his own personality.
Yet that determination reveals just how deeply Walter has affected him.
Anton Yelchin gives Porter's story an emotional weight that runs alongside Walter's rather than simply supporting it.
His growing connection with Norah also forces Porter to confront something his father has been avoiding.
Eventually, hiding behind another version of yourself stops working.
WALTER BLACK
What Happens When the Thing Saving You Takes Over?
At first, Walter controls the Beaver.
Eventually that distinction becomes considerably less clear.
That's where the film's unusual premise becomes more than a gimmick.
The puppet gives Walter permission to become active, confident, and connected again, but it also lets him avoid confronting himself directly.
Everyone around Walter can see the problem before he does.
The thing that helped him return to his family is beginning to stand between them.
Walter therefore faces a much harder challenge than simply rebuilding his career or repairing his marriage.
He has to discover whether the man beneath the puppet can live without it.