The Beaver

Jodie Foster returns to the director's chair for the story of a man on a downward spiral who relies on a puppet to express himself. "The Beaver" is made relevant in the casting of Mel Gibson as that man. Without his casting the film would have been quickly forgotten, but the DVD doesn't address the controversy.

The elephant in the room is the parallels both onscreen and offscreen between the downward spiral that Gibson has experienced in his real life and the unraveling that Walter is going through. This film in particular felt the impact as its release date was delayed due to the actor's antics. Yet it is never touched upon, at any point, even vaguely during Foster's audio commentary or the behind the scenes feature. Foster keeps her discussion solely on the technical aspect of the film, rarely even giving any behind the scenes anecdotes. The one interesting fact is when she calls out a particular scene that caused other studios to shy away from making the film.

Included are a few deleted scenes that never really belonged in the film. Foster does mention things that were cut out and the reasoning behind the decision to remove them. For the most part, it had to do with the pacing or tone at that point in the film.

"The Beaver" is made more relevant by its leading man, but both Foster and Summit, the studio behind it, lost an opportunity to try to make any kind of mention through the special features. There's something to be said for not sensationalizing the issues, but when it directly correlates to the film itself not mentioning anything just seems negligent.

The Beaver
Blu-ray
$30.49
Summit