The Greens can’t have children and, in the midst of that continued realization, sit down one night and begin to imagine their child into existence. Over a bottle of wine they come up with traits that would make up their perfect child, “Our kid will score the winning goal, have a big heart, be honest to a fault.” The list goes on. As the night wears on, reality sets in and, in a bit of a morbid twist, they bury the note paper, on which they dreamed up this fantasy child, in their garden. This child… was never meant to be…
From this event, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) experience a miracle. A flash rain storm drenches their house that night and where a box of personality traits and accomplishments was once buried, there’s now only a hole and a dirty 10-year-old boy (CJ Adams) is running through their house. Thus are the beginnings of The Odd Life of Timothy Green.
It all sounds silly, and it is. It takes place in Stanleyville (“The Pencil Capital of the World”) of all places and is flush with all the quaint small-town bits and bobs you’d expect. This is honestly more of a Disney Channel movie than anything else, but its cast determines it will hit theaters first. It’s a family film we don’t see too often anymore, especially given the fact it doesn’t star an underage pop star and isn’t using 3D to sell its whimsical wares. This is all to say The Odd Life of Timothy Green is easily digested, even though it’s aimed at an audience I’m not particularly a part of.
Where the film succeeds is in ignoring the mystery behind Timothy’s “birth”, the importance lies in the family he’s become a part of, the traits he holds and the lessons learned by all those around him as a result. He’s the epitome of a perfect child, fearless in his honest and loving to the core, many gravitate toward him, some tease that which they don’t understand and his innocence can be seen as weakness, something his unsuspecting “parents” aim to protect.
The story is told largely in flashback as Cindy and Jim tell an adoption agency representative (Shohreh Aghdashloo) the story of Timothy, the boy who grew in the garden and taught them the perils of parenting and what it means to be a good parent. This is the kind of PG-rated entertainment I grew up with as a kid, most of which has now moved over to television as studios spend their money on larger blockbuster fare. To be honest, I’m not even sure how large the audience is for this kind of film any longer or if they’re even paying attention.
Garner and Edgerton deliver cheese-filled, grinning ear-to-ear performances with Common playing Timothy’s soccer coach and David Morse playing Jim’s unenthusiastic father, the type of father Jim doesn’t want to be and the one he consistently looks to for approval. The casting continues down a perfect, cliched track with M. Emmet Walsh and Lois Smith playing Garner’s parents, Rosemarie DeWitt as the questioning sister and Dianne Wiest playing her shrew of a boss.
In most ways, The Odd Life of Timothy Green is going to connect with parents more than anyone else as they are the ones under the microscope here. Parents’ influence on their children’s lives are the concerns in question, and like I said, I’m not the target audience for this piece even though I recognize its charms and appreciate its message.
Written and directed by Peter Hedges (director of Dan in Real Life and writer of About a Boy) — with story credit going to Ahmet Zappa of all people — I found the idea of collecting all the traits a parent would want in their child, the realization they won’t be able to live up to such lofty goals and yet you love them anyway to be inspiring. The underlying message is that of love and devotion and it’s hard to deny a film when it wears its heart on its sleeve, even if it isn’t a film I necessarily care to watch.
