Review of The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) by John M — 15 Dec 2012

Harmless, but trite. So this is about a couple that have problems conceiving. They are on edge of giving up, but decide to have one last night where they write down the traits of their ideal child and bury them in a box in the garden for closure.

Through the magic of storytelling, little Timothy Green appears shortly thereafter, covered in dirt. This is a routine movie. It's very by the numbers, and the story goes everywhere you expect it to, and that's not only because they tell you the majority of the plot in the opening ten minutes.

That is not an insurmountable problem, but where The Odd Life of Timothy Green comes up short is that it is missing the magic that needs to accompany a story like this. The filmmakers think that they are being more charming than the material is actually capable of being; the framework shows, and you can tell that you are being manipulated.

To their credit, Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton do actually manage to make this bearable and better than it should be; I always like to see the underrated Edgerton in any movie, and the parental techniques that he was administering got a few chuckles out of me.

Overall, there is just no reason to see this, as there are much better examples out there with similar story arcs.