{
  "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/the-beaver#article",
  "recordType": "Article",
  "canonical": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/the-beaver",
  "alternate": {
    "html": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/the-beaver",
    "json": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/the-beaver.json"
  },
  "recordPublisher": {
    "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#archive-organization",
    "name": "Free Press Houston Archive"
  },
  "about": {
    "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#organization",
    "name": "Free Press Houston"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#organization",
    "name": "Free Press Houston"
  },
  "slug": "the-beaver",
  "title": "The Beaver",
  "deck": null,
  "author": null,
  "editorName": null,
  "publication": {
    "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#organization",
    "name": "Free Press Houston"
  },
  "issue": null,
  "publicationDate": null,
  "publicationYear": null,
  "sourceDateRaw": "June 21, 2026",
  "dateBasis": null,
  "bodyYearAnomaly": false,
  "printedPages": null,
  "section": "Film",
  "subjects": [
    "Film"
  ],
  "entities": [],
  "collections": [],
  "origin": "web",
  "originalUrl": "https://freepresshouston.com/film/the-beaver/",
  "alternateUrls": [],
  "era": "wordpress",
  "body": [
    "People who embrace The Beaver will like it without reservation. But The Beaver is a film that will divide people.",
    "As directed by Jodie Foster (who also co-stars) The Beaver offers a no holds barred look at depression. You think The Beaver is a comedy, and you will be laughing out loud, only the film turns, like a parabolic mirror on its own reality. If you’ve seen a film called Being There or maybe more currently The Truman Show; that is the grey area of human response that Foster is exploring. Only The Beaver is more than that.",
    "Mel Gibson stars as a family man with a factory to run who one day goes insane and only communicates through a hand puppet. The voice of the puppet is in a Cockney accent and while some may think its Michael Caine, I feel it leans more towards Ray Winstone who Gibson starred with in last year’s Edge of Darkness.",
    "The Beaver also stars Jennifer Lawrence and Anton Yelchin who both figure in a separate subplot. If Foster knows anything it’s how to make a movie look like a movie.",
    "The Beaver constantly challenges the viewer with its singular view that takes in a widescreen perspective with ultimate focus shifting between people watching television (the Kung Fu episode is one in which Foster co-starred in as a child), as well as a beaver hand puppet, in addition to those looking for catharsis in its myriad forms.",
    "- Michael Bergeron"
  ],
  "images": [],
  "lostImageUrls": [],
  "objects": [],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "the-beaver-web",
      "sourceType": "web-live",
      "label": "freepresshouston.com — surviving page",
      "originalUrl": "https://freepresshouston.com/film/the-beaver/",
      "assetUrl": null,
      "retrievalDate": "2026-08-29",
      "confidence": "probable",
      "note": "Recovered from the damaged live site; injected spam and template furniture removed, text and image order preserved.",
      "sourceByline": "Commandrea",
      "sourceDate": "June 21, 2026",
      "sourceCategory": "Film",
      "sourceTags": [
        "Film"
      ],
      "webStatus": "live"
    }
  ],
  "fingerprint": "the-beaver",
  "reviewStatus": "unreviewed",
  "confidence": "probable",
  "provenance": "recovered"
}
