Anti-semitism, bigotry, alcoholism, domestic violence - Mel Gibson's fall from grace has been well documented. And it makes his
latest film, The Beaver, all the more interesting. In the film, Gibson plays Walter Black, a man so depressed, he has ruined his
family and his business. After a failed suicide attempt, he stumbles upon a hand puppet in a nearby garbage bin and attempts to
repair his psyche by communicating solely through the beaver. Directed by Jodie Foster, The Beaver takes an outlandish premise
and turns it into a very serious and sensitive commentary on mental illness. And regardless of what you've read in the tabloids
and have come to know about Mel Gibson off screen, on screen, he is still a man with many talents, perhaps made even more
compelling in this story where art so closely imitates real life.
