REVIEW: The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Courtesy of Disney

Peter Hedges isn’t a household name, but the director consistently makes quality entertainment. Pieces of April and Dan in Real Life were underrated films with a melancholy tone and solid dramatic performances from Katie Holmes and Steve Carell.

With The Odd Life of Timothy Green, he’s now three-for-three. The charming modern fairy tale successfully juggles sadness and joy, a mixture that should bring tears to the eyes of even the most cynical moviegoer. And whoever realized that Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton should play an adoring married couple deserves a giant raise.

They play Cindy and Jim Green, who begin the story by telling a skeptical adoption agent (Shohreh Aghdashloo) why they’re the right people to raise a child. It has to do with Timothy (CJ Adams), but they acknowledge their explanation will be hard to believe. It is. But the sooner you go with it, the faster you’ll fall under the movie’s spell.

Turns out the couple can’t have children of their own, and they mourn their loss in a creative and touching way. They spend an evening writing down every trait their non-existent child would have, put the slips of paper in a wooden jewelry box and bury it in their backyard garden.

A few hours later, a boy appears in their home covered in mud and calling them Mom and Dad. He tells them his name is Timothy, the only boy’s name they had on their list. As the months go by and Timothy improves the lives of everyone around him, Cindy and Jim realize he personifies each characteristic they imagined their child would have.

I’m not going to lie: as the parent of a toddler, The Odd Life of Timothy Green deeply affected me. It might not be the same for everybody, but I walked out of the theater looking like I was having an allergy attack. Hedges, who also wrote the screenplay (based on a story by Ahmet Zappa), understands the joys, hopes and fears that parents experience and touches on practically all of them in a heartfelt manner. It never feels manipulative or schmaltzy. Okay… maybe a little schmaltzy, but in a good way.

Garner and Edgerton are outstanding as the leads. It’s the best work Garner has done in years, and Edgerton proves more versatile with each movie he makes. The two feel like a real married couple and are totally believable as parents – they get the positive and negative aspects of each role down pat.

The film is bolstered by a killer ensemble cast, with strong work by Rosemarie DeWitt, David Morse, Dianne Wiest, Ron Livingston, Common, Odeya Rush and especially the great M. Emmet Walsh. I didn’t know what to expect walking into the movie, but it ended up being one of my favorites of the year. If you’ve been looking for an original and imaginative family film, this one should fit the bill nicely. 

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is rated PG for mild thematic elements and brief language.

Grade: A-