Review of Odd Thomas (2013) by Filipeneto — 06 Sep 2020

This film is partly based on a successful novel by Dean Koontz. The film revolves around Odd Thomas, a young man who can see and communicate with the souls of the dead and uses this to solve crimes and homicides. For this, he collaborates with the police through a detective whom he is friends with and who knows his gift. He also has a longstanding relationship with Stormy, a young woman with a strong personality and who also helps him.

In this film, Odd Thomas is seriously apprehensive when he sees an enormous amount of evil spirits around a repellent-looking man. Knowing that they tend to be attracted to places where a lot of violence is going to happen, he decides to investigate the man and try to stop whatever is about to happen.

The film works quite well and, despite the supernatural theme, it was not conceived as a horror film but as a light adventure film, with touches of comedy, for a young audience. The script works quite well although I cannot say if it is true to the original book because I never found it in my mother tongue - Portuguese - and therefore I never read it. But the film successfully establishes an emotional link between the characters and the audience, and we are happy to follow Odd and his girlfriend in their investigations. The ending is good, truly surprising and it's hard not to feel sorry for the characters.

The cast is led very effectively by Anton Yelchin, who in this film has one of the most interesting roles of his career (which, as we all know, ended with a very early death, a few years ago). Beside you can see the beautiful Addison Timlin, also very good in the role of Stormy. The chemistry established by the two actors works really well. There is still room for veteran Willem Dafoe, who does his job well.

Technically, it is an effective and discreet film, which gives space to the script and the work of the actors to shine and knows how to put itself in the right place. It bets a lot on good cinematography and good special and CGI effects, particularly in scenes with the spirits and in some very well done action and fighting scenes. The sets and costumes also work very well.