The Odd Life of Timothy Green: Review

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a much simpler story than I had originally envisioned. And once the premise is accepted, the story flashes with warmth and believability. The action is simple and effective. There are no ridiculous action-packed scenes involving children in over-the-top situations. Rather, the unique Timothy must deal with the normal problems of an adolescent from his odd perspective.

The movie is a genuine family tale about a husband and wife, Jim and Cindy Green (Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner) searching to find the missing piece to complete their family. When the couple learns that they will not be able to conceive a child, they decide to move on by writing down all of the qualities their child would have had and burying the list in their garden. After a magical rainstorm, tree boy Timothy (CJ Adams) appears and blam, the couple has the child they’ve imagined. In a few short months Timothy manages to live an entire adolescence: dealing with school bullies, his first talent show, playing in “the big game,” the death of a close relative, and falling in love for the first time.

Timothy has a remarkable, and a very short life. Writer/Director Peter Hedges and story creator Ahmet Zappa aren’t trying to hide anything. From the opening scene we know Timothy isn’t with us anymore. The Green’s attempt at adopting a child, and the sadness felt at the loss of the unique Timothy, resonate as the film jumps from scene to scene, side-story to side-story. The film’s ending is spelled out for you, but it works despite the heavy-handedness. It’s a fun ride intended for children and their parents.

The story moves at an extremely rapid pace with the inciting incident coming sometime in the first few minutes. The discovery of Timothy is handled with an authenticity and scene economy that left me drooling as a screenwriter. Within just a few minutes of screen-time, Timothy appears and the parents accept and understand the magic of his origins. As an audience member, it comes off as surprisingly plausible. The film rockets forward and hits every major and minor plot point with very few surprises.

The script is not without its flaws. Often the duo’s plotline was too predictable for my tastes, with some pretty “On the Nose” exchanges of dialogue. And at times the story moves too fast, trying to squeeze the sweeping tale into a watchable amount of time. Also, the lack of explanation of Timothy’s magical origins left me a little unfulfilled. How did Timothy come to exist and where does he go next? I feel this could have been handled with a short scene of exposition and perhaps a quiet moment at the end with a small sapling growing in the garden and a telling look from the parents as they “said goodbye” with a smile—maybe not this exactly, but something to appease the curiosity of the parents so that they don’t go to sleep wondering “What just happened?” Fortunately, this question will probably not alter any children’s sleep patterns, as they drift off quickly to sleep with a smile. Parents will also delight in knowing that the film doesn’t tackle any uncomfortable issues that will have to be explained later awkwardly.

The cast is wonderful. Edgerton and Garner’s chemistry is perfect, with perhaps the only flaw being that they simply got along too well. The two basically agreed on every decision effecting Timothy, and were a united front across the board. Hedges and Zappa did a good job of sprinkling in a few minor disagreements between the couple to keep the relationship viable, but overall the Green’s didn’t disagree until just before the main culmination of the movie. Adam’s portrayal of Timothy is a delight and his smile is contagious. Timothy approaches his new world with the curiosity of an innocent and the maturity of an adult. The filmmakers did an excellent job of casting a collection of actors with a safe, quiet energy that really set the tone of the piece. Dianne Wiest, David Morse, Ron Livingston, Common, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odeya Rush and Shohreh Aghdashloo—these actors are great and really round out a distinct and purposeful cast.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s certainly a very good one and serves quite well as the happy movie that can be enjoyed with family or friends, or as pleasant background noise to a dull flight into Atlanta. The film is simple enough to be enjoyed again and again, and just “odd” enough to set it apart from typical Disney fare.