'Beaver' fever

Sometimes we all just need someone to talk to. After a rough day, it feels good to unload our problems onto someone else for awhile.

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) in “The Beaver” takes that idea a little bit too far as a depressed toy executive who completely retreats inside himself and allows Beaver, a hand puppet beaver, to do all his talking for him.

Gibson dusts off his old Australian accent whenever the Beaver is talking, differentiating the puppet from Walter, which unsurprisingly comes across as a little corny.

Director Jodie Foster plays Walter’s wife, a disillusioned woman who allows her husband to talk through a dirty beaver puppet, hoping he’ll just snap out of it. Foster should have stayed behind the camera on this one and let someone else act the fool.

There are plenty of good laughs, mostly brought about by the beaver’s bravado, so you almost forget how unlikable Mel Gibson has become. That in itself is a pretty big victory for a story arc that lacks any compelling twists or turns.