Reviews & Ratings for
The Odd Life of Timothy Green More at IMDbPro »

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97 out of 153 people found the following review useful:
Great, great movie!, 23 July 2012

Author: keilanil from United States

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!

62 out of 88 people found the following review useful:
Very, very underrated., 20 August 2012

Author: jabaligian

When I first saw the previews for this film, I was on the fence about seeing it. To me, it looked like it could be a pretty good movie, or an absolute train wreck. Then I read the reviews, which weren't very good, and I was less sure about seeing it. A few days ago, I saw it out of boredom at a cheap movie theater. As I began to watch the film, I realized that the movie was very uplifting and emotional, with lots of other feelings. I can admit, I cried during the film and I think everyone else in the theater did too. This movie wasn't all perfect though. It was very predictable, and when something happened in the middle of the film, I could basically tell how it would end. All in all, I walked out of the theater feeling good, and I hope to see it again soon.

A word of advice, DO NOT LISTEN TO THE REVIEWS OF THIS MOVIE. The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a great family movie to see, and it really gives you that warm feeling when you leave the theater.

22 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
A lame duck in the dark, 13 December 2012

Author: Markus Dorst (xeuroli@yahoo.com) from Germany

I am all for sweet, romantic, family themed fantasy movies. I am a Disney fan. And to me, this movie is a waste of time. It is not heavy enough on the fantasy aspect, one could have done much more to explain how all this came about.

The movie is filmed with a lighting that often makes it impossible to see what is going on. Why do people think that mysterious scenes are to be filmed on sets that are darker than my Granny's coal cellar?

Jenny Garner is one of my favorite actresses since ALIAS and I even forgave her the Electra disaster. In this movie though, she is overacting like a theater novice and the whiny little child is annoying.

Just one big disappointment.

29 out of 44 people found the following review useful:
There is something odd about this movie, indeed., 16 September 2012

Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

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

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

44 out of 76 people found the following review useful:
One of the best movies of the year!, 7 August 2012
Author: donillini from Chicago, IL

I was lucky to get to go to an advance showing of this movie tonight. Boy, was I surprised in what I got to see! Odd Life of Timothy Green is a rare gem out there for a clever storyline that can be funny, sad, and uplifting at the same time.

Without giving too much away, Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton play a couple who have tried to have a child unsucessfully until one night, a son appears....from the garden?!? The storyline is both magical and grounded in reality where we follow Timothy Green learn about others and life. This includes bullying, love, competition, and yes, even death. I found it to be a bit of a mix between two other old live action Disney movies: Polyanna and Mary Poppins.

The acting in this movie is superb, especially CJ Adams as the main character and Dianne Weist as the grumpy old lady everybody knows. Both of these actors were able to play their characters multi dimensional and I really got a laugh out of Weist's dour expression for most of the movie. The movie rounds out nicely with M. Emmet Walsh, David Morse, and (what?) Common.

The only gripe I had with the movie was I felt that it was a bit slow moving and could have been about a 30 minutes shorter, but it still was one of Disney's bests and one of the best movies I have seen this year.

When it comes out next week, I highly recommend seeing it. A unique family story about adoption with a sprinkle of that Disney magic!

19 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Very mushy and fun, 8 October 2012

Author: lagudafuad from Nigeria

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.

26 out of 42 people found the following review useful:
This review makes me feel like an old curmudgeon, 14 August 2012

Author: marc from Denver

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.

17 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
An oddly-paced and oddly-acted endeavor, 21 August 2012

Author: gregeichelberger from San Diego

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Count me as the odd man out in my opinion of this picture.

Disney Studio's effort to create a benign supernatural tale — with more than a passing nod to "Forrest Gump" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" — about a young boy who magically appears from a garden, at first seemed a bit ludicrous.

Upon viewing The Odd Life of Timothy Green, however, reveals it is actually a bittersweet, emotional, heartfelt experience. Yet, there are some glaring distractions which make it difficult to give that experience a total recommendation.

Directed by Peter Hedges ("Pieces of April," "Dan in Real Life") and written by Hedges and Ahmet Zappa, The Odd Life of Timothy Green often cannot decide which road it wants to travel. Some critics may label this a well-meaning, yet thinly-veiled sentimental blah-fest, I tried to see it more as a positive family film, certainly flawed and certainly clichéd in part, but overall somewhat satisfying with several genuine lump-in-the-throat moments.

However, unlike the recent "Moonrise Kingdom," where the presence of two offbeat young characters was a revelation, here, it becomes tiresome.

Told in flashback to an international adoption official, the story has married couple Jim and Cindy Green (Joel Edgerton, "Warrior," and Jennifer Gardner, "Arthur") unable to conceive, yet passionate about having a baby. So, in true Hollywood fashion, they write down the attributes of a perfect child and bury the notes in their garden.

I cannot imagine anyone doing such a thing, but . . . thanks to a "Home Alone"-like mystical contrivance, though, a little boy, Timothy (CJ Adams, "Dan In Real Life"), makes his entrance.

At first, the Greens believe him to be a runaway, but realize he has come from a place they could not possibly comprehend (the leaves growing from his ankles illustrates the weird circumstances they find themselves in).

They make no effort to explain his presence to family, friends and school officials, other than to say it was a miraculous adoption. Then, trying to be "perfect" parents, they find themselves repeating the same mistakes their own mothers and fathers did. This is especially true of Jim, whose dad (David Morse, "16 Blocks") ignored him and/or bullied him for years.

Yet, for all of his strangeness (he goes into trances while looking at the sun and seems blissfully idiotic, at times), Timothy has a most positive attitude and brings joy to older actors such as M. Emmet Walsh ("Back to School") and Dianne Wiest ("Parenthood"), among others.

He also becomes involved with another bizarre loner, Joni (Odeya Rush, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" TV series), who has a birthmark instead of vegetation and drags giant tree limbs around on her bicycle.

Meanwhile, a subplot concerning the possible closing of the town's pencil factory causes more consternation, since both parents are employed at the plant. Token villains, including Cindy's snobby sister, Brenda (Rosemarie DeWitt, "The Watch"), and factory owner Franklin Crudstaff (Ron Livingston, best known for "Office Space"), are inserted simply to root against.

A sports element is also thrown in for no particular reason other than to show the good and bad side of moms and dads who derive success and failure from their offspring.

The messages contained within, while certainly valuable and sometimes acted admirably, often lack a sense of subtly — sometimes the writing is carved with a chisel and smeared with too many situations we have seen many times before.

That, and there is absolutely no chemistry between the leads, with Garner's irritating performance as the meat-headed "mother" provoking much more anger and impatience than empathy.

My frustration was also how to separate the wheat from the chaff here. I think any movie that supports a pro-family, pro-adoption agenda has a definite place in our current film lexicon. I just wish that "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" was a better example of those values.

21 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
Very Touching Film, but Just a Tad Too Short, 15 August 2012

Author: pv71989-1 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

First of all, let me give this disclaimer. I am one of the background actors in the movie (African-American male at the picnic, soccer games, factory and town hall), so there might be a little bias.

The movie is actually very good, but, alas, is a Disney film and Disney tends to keep their movies under two hours to match the attention span of the intended audiences.

That said, this movie could have used another 15-20 minutes to help flesh out the main and supporting characters. Having spent almost 20 days on the set, I can say director Peter Hedges (About A Boy, What's Eating Gilbert Grape) probably did have such a film only to have to cut another chunk or two.

Sadly, those chunks would have helped.

The story begins with Jim Green (Joel Edgerton) and his wife Cindy (Jennifer Garner) talking to an adoption agency administrator (Shohreh Aghdashloo). The Greens have left key portions of their paperwork empty -- the parts concerning prior experience and why they would make good parents. For that, Jim and Cindy decide to recount the odd life of Timothy Green.

From there, we see, in flashback, Jim and Cindy being told by a doctor that Cindy cannot get pregnant. The couple go home to cry about it, but Jim doesn't want to give up. So, he puts all the wishes he's had for a children on paper and encourages Cindy to do the same. They bury the wishes in a box in a hole in the garden.

A strange rain storm hits. When Jim and Cindy investigate, they find a mysterious boy covered in mud in the room they'd set aside for the kid that would never be born. His name is Timothy and he's soon calling Jim and Cindy Dad and Mom. And he has a big secret -- he's got leaves growing out of his ankles, leaves so strong and natural that local florist Reggie (Lin-Manuel Sanders) breaks his shears trying to snip them.

Afterward, the story goes in a whirlwind. Timothy is introduced to the rest of the family -- Cindy's sister Brenda (Rosemarie DeWitt), Uncle Bub (M. Emmet Walsh), Uncle Mel (Lois Smith) and Jim's dad, Big Jim (David Morse)-- as well as friends (Gregory Marshall Smith, Paul Kakos, Sonia Guzman, Chance Bartels, Paul Barlow Jr., among others. It's here we see the effects of the editing as the introductions of these characters is missing, leaving us a bit confused. We know Jim and Big Jim don't see eye to eye but we get no real sense of the tension. We learn Brenda is more successful than Cindy and has three kids but we can't get a feel for the sibling rivalry. Uncle Bub and Aunt Mel look like they were thrown in.

And this is how much of the film plays out. When we meet Bernice Crudstaff (Oscar winner Dianne Wiest), whose father started the town's pencil factory, we only catch glimpses and only learn her name later. Her husband, Joseph (James Rebhorn), is virtually a ghost, getting perhaps two scenes. Their son Franklin (Ron Livingston) runs the pencil factory and is supposed to be a hard case but we only see a few wisps of his snobbery, including at the crucial town meeting where he gets called on the carpet.

About the most interesting parts of the movie are Joni Jerome (Odeya Rush), a local girl with her own little secret, and Coach Cal (rapper Common), who treats Timothy as a mere water boy for the factory's soccer team. Joni gets a chance to reveal her secret and find a friend (and vice versa for Timothy), while Coach learns it's more about gamesmanship than winning.

Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner make a charming and believable couple, but C.J. Adams, who plays Timothy, steals the show. He ably and superbly plays all of the emotional weight put upon his shoulders as he has to emulate all of the wishes of his movie parents.

Knowing what I know of the production, I honestly believe another 15-20 minutes of footage from the Scott Sanders/Ahmet Zappa production could have done wonders for plot and character development.

Overall, though, it was a very good film that could have been better. For now, just revel in Timothy's wonder, Jim and Cindy's growth as parents and the fun of the soccer games. Yes, it's odd but so is the life of Timothy Green.

18 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
A sweet movie, 17 August 2012

Author: Yum_yum_now_reviews_movies from United States

This was a nice little movie. The plot device is quite interesting and original, something you don't see too often any more with all the sequels and prequels and spin offs. It's home grown boy, Timothy, is played superbly! There are the requisite small town villains, good folk, and people who learn lessons along the way. It is an affirmation of life, but there is death, too. I don't think little kids will be traumatized, though.

I'd say this movie would appeal to families, including young children, and people who like happy stories with a bit of a twist. It doesn't have any sexual content or vile language. It's a bit sad in the end, but then redeems itself, too.

The message about tolerance and friendship is pure Disney...and I don't mean that in a bad way. It just isn't terribly deep and profound. It's a charming way to spend a hot afternoon in a cool theater. Just bring a tissue if you are a blubberer. I heard more than one sniff and nose blower.

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