This is as weird as I thought it would be.
Puppet Therapy is never this extensive. In addition to the obvious fact that it is used with children. I only decided to watch it because I am watching all of Miss Lawrence's films (as always, she performed gloriously, portraying a troubled high school valedictorian).
Has anyone else noticed how much Foster looks like Hunt? Enough for me to be thinking about "What Women Want" for a significant part of the film.
I will say, though, that Mel Gibson did manage an impressive rendition of the clinically depressed. (Attribute his personal life details here.) There were also a few memorable quotes.
"This is a picture of Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed individual. Somewhere inside him is a man who fell in love. Who started a family. Who ran a successful company. That man has gone missing. No matter what he's tried, and he's tried everything, Walter can't seem to bring him back. It's as if he's died, but hasn't had the good sense to take his body with him. So mostly what he does is sleep." (I know how he feels.)
"This is a picture of Walter Black, who had to become The Beaver, who had to become a father, so that one day this might just become a picture of Walter Black."
(I love how The Beaver narrates the opening lines, but, by the closing lines, Walter has regained himself and is the one doing the narrating.)
"Today I'm here to warn you, that you are being lied to. Our parents, our teachers, our doctors, have lied to us. And it's the exact same lie. The same six words, 'Everything is going to be okay'. What if it isn't? What if some of human experience is just something you inherit, like curly hair and blue eyes? What if pain is just in your DNA, and tragedy is your birthright? Or what if, sometimes, right out of the blue, when you least expect it, something changes?"
"I'm not okay, not at all. What do I do with that? What do any of us do? Besides lie. This is what I believe, right now there is someone who is with you, someone who is willing to pick you up, dust you off, kiss you, forgive you, put up with you, wait for you, carry you, love you. So while everything may not be okay, one thing I know is true, you do not have to be alone."
"We reach a point where, in order to go on, we have to wipe the slate clean. We start to see ourselves as a box that we're trapped inside and no matter how we try and escape, self help, therapy, drugs, we just sink further and further down. The only way to truly break out of the box is to get rid of it all together. I mean, you built it in the first place.
If the people around you are breaking your spirit, who needs them? Your wife who pretends to love you, your son who can't even stand you. I mean, put them out of their misery.
Starting over isn't crazy. Crazy is being miserable and walking around half asleep, numb, day after day after day. Crazy is pretending to be happy. Pretending that the way things are is the way they have to be for the rest of your bleeding life. All the potential, hope, all that joy, feeling, all that passion that life has sucked out of you. Reach out, grab a hold of it, and take it back."
"Funny. I think it is a mess (her graffiti art), but you think it is amazing. I think you are amazing, but you think you are a mess."
**** Spoilers ****
I understand the idea, the personification, the fact that he has a mental illness. But making The Beaver come alive, having some sort of psychotic episode, then trying to saw off his hand crossed some sort of line. It is not that I do not empathize. I assure you that I have seen my share of real life psychotic episodes; that scene in particular seemed unrealistic to me. I am not sure whether or not it has to do with the fact that it was Mel Gibson.
Puppet Therapy is never this extensive. In addition to the obvious fact that it is used with children. I only decided to watch it because I am watching all of Miss Lawrence's films (as always, she performed gloriously, portraying a troubled high school valedictorian).
Has anyone else noticed how much Foster looks like Hunt? Enough for me to be thinking about "What Women Want" for a significant part of the film.
I will say, though, that Mel Gibson did manage an impressive rendition of the clinically depressed. (Attribute his personal life details here.) There were also a few memorable quotes.
"This is a picture of Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed individual. Somewhere inside him is a man who fell in love. Who started a family. Who ran a successful company. That man has gone missing. No matter what he's tried, and he's tried everything, Walter can't seem to bring him back. It's as if he's died, but hasn't had the good sense to take his body with him. So mostly what he does is sleep." (I know how he feels.)
"This is a picture of Walter Black, who had to become The Beaver, who had to become a father, so that one day this might just become a picture of Walter Black."
(I love how The Beaver narrates the opening lines, but, by the closing lines, Walter has regained himself and is the one doing the narrating.)
"Today I'm here to warn you, that you are being lied to. Our parents, our teachers, our doctors, have lied to us. And it's the exact same lie. The same six words, 'Everything is going to be okay'. What if it isn't? What if some of human experience is just something you inherit, like curly hair and blue eyes? What if pain is just in your DNA, and tragedy is your birthright? Or what if, sometimes, right out of the blue, when you least expect it, something changes?"
"I'm not okay, not at all. What do I do with that? What do any of us do? Besides lie. This is what I believe, right now there is someone who is with you, someone who is willing to pick you up, dust you off, kiss you, forgive you, put up with you, wait for you, carry you, love you. So while everything may not be okay, one thing I know is true, you do not have to be alone."
"We reach a point where, in order to go on, we have to wipe the slate clean. We start to see ourselves as a box that we're trapped inside and no matter how we try and escape, self help, therapy, drugs, we just sink further and further down. The only way to truly break out of the box is to get rid of it all together. I mean, you built it in the first place.
If the people around you are breaking your spirit, who needs them? Your wife who pretends to love you, your son who can't even stand you. I mean, put them out of their misery.
Starting over isn't crazy. Crazy is being miserable and walking around half asleep, numb, day after day after day. Crazy is pretending to be happy. Pretending that the way things are is the way they have to be for the rest of your bleeding life. All the potential, hope, all that joy, feeling, all that passion that life has sucked out of you. Reach out, grab a hold of it, and take it back."
"Funny. I think it is a mess (her graffiti art), but you think it is amazing. I think you are amazing, but you think you are a mess."
**** Spoilers ****
I understand the idea, the personification, the fact that he has a mental illness. But making The Beaver come alive, having some sort of psychotic episode, then trying to saw off his hand crossed some sort of line. It is not that I do not empathize. I assure you that I have seen my share of real life psychotic episodes; that scene in particular seemed unrealistic to me. I am not sure whether or not it has to do with the fact that it was Mel Gibson.