6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry JonesDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
I'm the Beaver...and I'm here to save your g-----n life.
What is The Beaver all about? Is it just the story of a crazy middle aged man who wears a puppet beaver on his left arm and proves
throughout the movie why he failed ventriloquism school? Not hardly. This isn't The Muppets. This isn't kid stuff. This is advanced psychology, and it's not
even really about the puppet with a man's hand up its rear end -- so says the beaver itself. So what is it, then? The Beaver is a
complex Drama about a lost man -- both metaphorically and to a lesser extent, literally -- who embarks
on an
unconventional inner and outer last-chance quest to turn his life around. It's about a family that loves him and needs him but doesn't like what
he's become --
before or after the Beaver -- and that fears turning out just like him, for one family member to the point of obsession. It's a complex picture that
covers an issue of vastly greater complexity. Unfortunately, that might also be its downfall. So wound up is The Beaver in trying to cram so
many emotional and thematic undercurrents into itself that it sometimes seems to lose sight of where it's going and what it wants to say.
Ultimately, however, it seems that The Beaver is about the understanding of one very troubled life both individually and within the greater
context of
how it
fits in with
those lives that surround it. It's also about accepting the truths of the world -- whatever those truths may be for each individual -- and making
them a part of life rather than something from which to escape. It's about a means towards an end, a release, eschewing conformity and doing
what the soul wants and going where the soul leads -- for better or for worse -- in the pursuit of the life one makes for himself or herself as it's a
sum-total
collection of each and every experience, word, tragedy, and celebration that have all come down to each moment that ticks away forevermore.
Thank you! I just had it stuffed.
The Beaver chews out a strong but occasionally flawed 1080p Blu-ray transfer. Though a touch soft, smeared, and listless in a few spots, the image generally offers good detailing across the board. Facial and clothing textures are often complex and natural, while surrounding objects are sharp and shapely. Clarity is amazing for the most part, and the image is mostly clean, save for a few random white speckles that briefly and sporadically appear. Colors are extraordinarily vibrant; the palette is never lacking in brightness or stability. Flesh tones favor an ever-so-slightly warm appearance, but the image is never excessively hot or, on the other end of the spectrum, unnaturally pale. Black levels are rock-solid, inky and dark but not detrimental to close-up fine details. The image is free of banding, blocky backgrounds, and other assorted maladies. A very light layer of grain rounds out a high quality yet not-quite-perfect image from Summit Entertainment.
The Beaver sports a high quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Overall, the track is smooth as silk. Music enjoys top-level clarity, delivering a natural, realistic presence throughout the entire range, no matter what's playing. Popular music in particular is seamlessly spacious and enjoys excellent flow; it's very well balanced across the entire front half of the soundstage, not to mention its subtle surround support structure. Ambience is light and limited but natural and pleasing; the track makes subtle use of every speaker in the 5-channel configuration to carry mood-enhancing elements that nicely reinforce the film's locations, be they hustle-bustle busy or just random natural outdoor atmosphere. Finally, dialogue reproduction is faultless. Certainly, this isn't exactly a memorable or in any way notable lossless mix, but Summit's presentation handles the picture's fairly limited-in-scope soundtrack wonderfully.
The Beaver arrives on Blu-ray with a trio of extras, the best of which is a relatively compact making-of piece that does a fair job of dissecting the
movie in a short amount of time.
The Beaver is a frustrating picture on several levels. Nothing's quite as developed as it ought to be, not the characters, the story, the emotions, or the film's purpose and lessons. It's far too jumbled, tries too hard, and never quite manages to form a fully-coherent whole. It's a shame, because The Beaver has the potential to be a great movie, one with resounding meaning and long-lasting purpose. As it is, it's a decent but frustrating watch that boasts a great a idea and a powerhouse cast but little else. Summit's Blu-ray release of The Beaver features strong video and audio alongside a few extras. Recommended as a rental.
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