December 4, 2012
The Odd Life Of Timothy Green
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
When a young married couple (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) finds out they cannot have children of their own, they jot down all the qualities their fantasy child would have and put the slips of paper into a wooden box. One magical thunderstorm later they have their ideal son, a 10-year-old boy named Timothy (CJ Adams), who has sprung up complete from the garden.
Once graced with this miracle, the new parents promptly transform into dithering, hovering helicopter parents. Together, they form a tag-team of neurosis. No wonder the kid starts losing his leaves. In real life, he'd lose his mind. Fortunately, Timothy makes friends with another oddball, a girl named Joni (Odeya Rush). Naturally, it's love; Timothy may be part plant, but he's all (heterosexual) boy.
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is three-parts fantasy to one-part drama, and falls into the "mystical child" category, a troubled genre that has, in the past, given rise to movies like "AI" (the Spielberg bomb about a robot boy) and -- perhaps a more apt comparison -- "D.A.R.Y.L.." (the stinker from the '80s about a boy with a robot brain). This film is just as artificial.
There's no reason to buy this Combo Pack, except as one more sugary Christmas treat. The DVDs Special Features add little of value, consisting only of a handful of Deleted Scenes, a music video of the movie's theme song and previews of other Disney movies. The one interesting thing about the Special Features is listening to director and co-writer Peter Hedges lamenting the trims on the Deleted Scenes commentary track.
The Blu-ray disc offers all that plus an audio track of Hedges offering his commentary on the whole film, a featurette on theme-song composer and performer Glen Hansard and a making-of featurette.
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
DVD / Blu-ray Combo Pack
http://disney.go.com/the-odd-life-of-timothy-green/
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
