Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster in 'The Beaver'

Perhaps you've seen the two Internet trailers for "The Beaver," starring Mel Gibson as a mentally ill man who begins communicating through a beaver hand-puppet. The official trailer promises a heartwarming if offbeat drama with the usual moments of tension, humor and tenderness. The other one is decidedly unofficial: It replaces the beaver's dialogue with excerpts from Gibson's furiously obscene, racist phone messages to his onetime girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

Doesn't the second trailer sound more compelling? Imagine one of Hollywood's most famously volatile personalities channeling his id into a puppet so hostile that it could flay the hide off Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. That version of "The Beaver" could have been a self-reflective work of art for Gibson -- or a self-immolation -- but either way it would have been more memorable than the movie in theaters today.

Gibson is fairly convincing as Walter Black, a depressed toy company CEO withdrawing from his family. His wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster), kicks him out of the house; their teenage son, Porter (an appealing Anton Yelchin), fakes essays for fellow high-school students. Porter also begins dating the class valedictorian (Jennifer Lawrence), who inevitably comes with her own set of problems.

Foster, who directs, approaches the material sensitively, but Kyle Killen's script is overwrought, overstuffed and confused. One minute "The Beaver" is a weepy drama, the next a light comedy with cameos from Matt Lauer and Jon Stewart. It also becomes a jarringly dark creep-show, as the puppet takes over Walter's mind and body. It's one thing for Walter to have an identity crisis, but the film has one, too.