The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)

This Disney fantasy is way too sugary sweet and predictable for my tastes. It stars Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, and C J Adams, as Timothy.

Garner and Edgerton are a married couple living in the small town of Stanleyville. The town is idyllically beautiful and it has as its' main enterprise a local pencil factory. The factory has been owned for generations by the Crudstaff family.However, due to the economic times the factory is in danger of closing.

Edgerton works at the factory while Garner is employed at the Crudstaff House and Pencil Museum as a guide.

The film is told in flashbacks as the couple are being interviewed to be adoptive parents. They are relating their magical experiences with Timothy Green to the counselors.

Having been told by their fertility doctor that they cannot have children, they decide that night to write down all the wonderful qualities they would have liked their child to have. They put the papers in a metal box and bury it in the backyard. During the night, a huge rainstorm hits and suddenly a young boy--Timothy--magically appears in their home.

Guess what? He possesses all the characteristics that they had written down and will follow the path that they had envisioned for him. However, there's one big caveat. He has leaves attached to his legs and in time as the leaves are shed one by one you can guess what will be the end result.

I'm puzzled why the makers of the film decided to make many of the supporting cast such unlikeable characters. Garner's sister, portrayed by Rosemarie DeWitt is self-centered and fairly obnoxious while Edgerton's father, played by the wonderful actor Robert Morse, is basically a macho bully. Also, pretty much the entire Crudstaff family (Dianne Wiest and Ron Livingston in particular) are quite mean-spirited.

Not all the supporting characters are unlikeable. Odeya Rush plays a young girl who befriends Timothy when no one else will. She shows him what is apparently a large red birthmark on her shoulder, which has caused her to be kind of an outcast as well.

All in all, this film may appeal to youngsters, who will ignore the schmaltz, a lot more than it appealed to me. Also, possibly to adults who like these type of complete sweet fantasies.

Fmovies: Although this movie is not much of a box office success, due to the heavy load of drama, sensitivity and all the mushy-mushy stuff, I still say it is nice to see things go well sometimes, makes you feel that the world is not that bad.

Walt Disney still brings a little magic into our lives trying to make you feel the world is not that much of a sad place. Peter Hedges the director and co-writer of the film did a nice job with this movie, which doesn't have lots of special effects but delivers the hallmark family fun that Disney is known for, Peter finds a way to draw your sensitivity out and make you develop an emotional attachment to the characters from the movies first scene of parents struggling to have a child to when a naked kid shows up and then all the way till the end.

The odd life of Timothy green is about a couple Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton), who couldn't have children. The couple has done all they can to get pregnant but all to no avail, so they began to dream about what their child would be like, they wrote down all they wished he would be, achieve and become, placed it in a box and buried it in the backyard.

One stormy night young Timothy (CJ Adams) shows up on their doorstep and calls them mum and dad.

CJ Adams was exceptional in his task as Timothy Green, child actors seem to have a difficult role sometimes when they have to convince you, but CJ did a good job and I was impressed by his acting.

As Adams plays young Timothy who sees life differently; hey! He has leaves growing on his ankles, he likes to spread his hands in the sunlight, he is naïve and truthful to a fault.

The movie's story had some loops here and there, but it was fun to see how things planned to turn out, although some can boast that the movie was a little predictable but it was also lovable. I won't burst the kids from school to go see this movie, but if you do catch it on TV gather the family around for a fun time.

If you remember the good old days when the story was in the forefront and people dedicated months and years into character development then yes this film is for you. With the way Hollywood has become a sci-fi shoot em slash em industry films with heart and simplistic storytelling get lost in the fray but are very necessary. It starts out slow and on the nose but once timothy shows up the film shines. You find yourself engulfed into the couples life and not wanting the show to end. When you feel like you know the story and the characters then that means you watched a great film. As film makers and critics and people with the option to voice that instantly its very easy to forget that hey the reason you arnt rushing to see the film or tell people about it is because they did their job so well you felt like you knew them. It is easy to see a film and break down cuts, and fades and length of scenes but this film was one of those ones where you didn't care if it was formulaic at parts or if it was too heartfelt and sappy in others. It was such a joy that simple and deep character development still happens and its an artform I hope we never lose.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green fmovies. Something is missing from this movie. By all means, this should had been a great, entertaining and heartfelt, modern fairy tale, for the whole family to enjoy but the movie handles certain themes poorly and make some odd choices with its story at times.

And honestly, I still foremost really liked the movie. It's harmless and cute enough still and the movie has its moments. But that doesn't take away anything from the fact that this movie still is being a bit of a missed opportunity.

All of the right intentions were there, it just didn't always worked out successfully. The approach they were going for was a heartfelt family movie, in which a mysterious young boy brings people together and changes their lives for the positive. It just happen to do it all in a wrong way, for most of the time. First of all; it does far too little with its mystery/fantasy aspects. They accept the boy for who he is and where he came from pretty early on- and easily. Besides, it all seems like the boy is doing very little special actually, as if the movie was afraid it would loose some of its viewers if it was going to be more heavy on its fantasy aspects.

That perhaps was the movie its biggest problem; it wasn't heavy on its fantasy. The movie rather picks some uninteresting plot developments instead. It prefers to be about pencils, as opposed to something more heartfelt or bigger than life. It seems like the movie still wanted to be about morals and wanted to teach you about life but it mostly does so by inserting stereotypical characters and some forced or formulaic dramatic moments. It's not as warm and emotional involving as this movie required to be, in order for it to let it all work out.

I am also still a bit confused about it who this movie was aimed for. It seems to be a bit too slow and uninteresting for young children and not convincing enough for adults. It's a bit in between of being an entertaining children's movie and a modern fairy tale for adults. I did wished they had balanced certain things out a bit better, so the movie would had been better and more fun to watch for both adults and youngsters.

The movie is still being fine as it is. I mean, all the things I had problems with didn't ruined the movie for me in any way and I could certainly still enjoy and appreciate it for what it was. It's cuteness factor and innocence still make this a recommendable film. Just don't expect to be very taken- or blown away by any of it.

7/10

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I like Peter Hedges' other films. I wish I could have liked this more. Its' heart and message are so in the right place, but it plays like a schmaltzy movie of the week. Jennifer Garner, whom I have really enjoyed in other roles, overplays this one and is very disappointing. The kid who plays Timothy is good enough. His young female friend Odeya Rush is the best in the cast. Joel Edgerton is perfect for Lifetime movie of the week. They are all really likable. So I just wished I liked the film more. And the message is terrific. I cry in schmaltzy films but I think it says much about this film in that the only time it brought any tears was in the final scene which was grounded in reality. When the fantasy was going I just wasn't sucked in.

7 may be a generous rating, but this is a solid family film with a strong positive message. There is a big audience out there for this film. I don't really want to discourage them from seeing it.

What a wonderful movie! Because you can read the summary, I will just tell you our reaction to it. We were lucky enough to receive tickets to a pre-release screening of this moving. We took the whole family, 5 boys ages 5-16, and my husband and myself. Everyone loved it. Even the 5 year old, and that is no small thing. This movie will make you laugh and cry and then laugh again. And the laughing moments range from chuckles to totally surprise you as they burst out of your chest howls out loud.

Though we have our boys, we are waiting to adopt a girl, so the theme of parents who want a child that they can't seem to have, and the theme of taking in a child that you didn't give birth to and/or adoption really hit home for us. I sat at the end of the movie and cried, and they were tears of laughter and sadness and hope all mixed up together. Even if you're not interested in adoption, this is really a touching show.

I wish Disney made more movies like this. Totally clean, nothing even remotely possibly offensive, and yet it wasn't just a kid show. It was interesting, engaging, witty. As noted above - good for everyone from ages 5 to 40!