Are you willing to watch a good actor at work, or is the mugshot and scandals all you see and hear? Where you come from with your perspective on that essential question will (unfortunately) factor into how well you like or dislike The Beaver.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 16, 2024

Foster does her audience an injustice by adopting a humorless tone and refusing to have more fun with the obvious elephant in the room.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 9, 2023

I only wish that Gibson and Yelchin had more screen time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2022

The integrity of the actors and director rescues this film from disaster. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 9, 2022

All in all, this movie is just fine. It has humor, and hope, and it features a number of likable actors (even Mel) in likable roles.

| Mar 24, 2021

Despite some funny visuals in the trailer is not a comedy. It is a dark exploration of mental illness and its effect on the family unit.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 31, 2021

The Beaver flirts with virtually every genre.

| Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

I was shocked by how effective it actually was.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 10, 2020

The Beaver is a well-crafted film with some very compelling elements.

| Apr 3, 2020

The Beaver is a conscientious, industrious and creative film that not only gives us one of the best performances of the year with Mel Gibson, but builds hope in shedding a light on the issue of depression.

| Nov 16, 2019

Gibson, of course, is well suited right now to playing a man in pain. But he has little chemistry with Foster, who plays the woman who gives him more chances than he deserves.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 8, 2019

This really is one of the most unbalanced, incohesive, disturbing, vomit-inducing, yet strangely captivating movies I have seen in some time.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2018

This might have been better as an intimate drama about mental illness and it doesn't have time to explore all of its themes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 24, 2018

[Gibson offers] one of the most subtly complex turns of his long career, single-handedly pulling off Foster's strange, imperfect but ultimately affecting dramedy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 8, 2018

The other actors keep pace with Gibson, especially Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence as a teen love interest. The thick, meaty, rich, dark film offers only a few moments of gallows humor to lighten the mood.

| Apr 4, 2018

The quirky concept and Gibson's powerhouse performance give The Beaver unexpected resonance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 14, 2016

It doesn't quite work, but it does provide something of a cinematic exorcism for the public's increasingly conflicted relationship with Gibson.

| May 12, 2015

Thinks it's a whimsical tale of a man finding himself, but Gibson thinks it's the tale of a man losing his mind.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 22, 2013

Jodie Foster's The Beaver had its moments, but the overall premise just didn't fly. I just couldn't buy the idea of the talking puppet.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 2, 2013

A unique and thoughtful project that showcases a charming, as well as unconventional, character journey -- and one of Gibson's best roles to date.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 2, 2012