The Beaver (**)

The Beaver looked to be one of the first great movies of 2011, possibly a film that would kick off the award season earlier than normal. Sure, the plot seemed ridiculous, but Mel Gibson appeared to be back at the top of his game with Jodie Foster returning to the director's chair. I regret to say then that The Beaver is none of those things. It is simply a misguided, disjointed, rough assembly of a film that MAYBE had the potential to be good had several things changed.

The film opens on Mel Gibson's character Walter Black, a depressed, tired man - the problem is the audience has no idea why he is like this to begin with. He has a great family and a seemingly high-paying job. Shortly after the film begins, he moves out, finds a puppet in a dumpster, then moves right back in to rekindle his broken family. Are problem marriages really that easily solved?

His son, Porter, is a student who makes hundreds of dollars at a time forging papers and speeches for lazy students at his school. Then he falls in love with the Valedictorian, and for the life of her she can't write her own graduation speech. Hmmm. Walter's youngest son, Henry, is ignored and bullied at school, but why? There is never any resolve for his character, and we are left to assume that after this whole ordeal, he was bullied even more for being that kid with the 'crazy dad.'

The film seems to function solely as one that is striving for awards glory, but it tragically falls short. There is no way that two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster is doing her best directing work here. The film lacks a solid tone, switching from comedy to drama with a sprinkling of thriller near the end. For me, audiences didn't know when to laugh or when to be serious, and that is actually a problem. They ended up giggling at parts that we all knew were meant to be serious, and didn't laugh at parts that were.

Unfortunately, Mel Gibson won't be receiving his first acting Oscar nomination for this film, and Jodie won't receive her first directing. The wait is back on for quality films to reveal themselves for the 2011 season. Happy hunting.

(Awards potential: No awards potential)