La Drôle de Vie de Timothy Green

I was able to see this movie on a rare night out with my children, ages 13,11,9,7,and 6. It's hard to find a movie that the whole family could enjoy but ALL of them didn't move the whole time. Not one asked to use the restroom, how much longer and what was happening. For any parent you know that it is a HUGE plus!

As for the movie itself, it is by far NOT the best movie around. However, when you can walk away from a movie and reflect on how it relates to your own life then you have a winner.

I am not sure if those without children could appreciate this movie. If you have children and can't appreciate it then there is something amiss in your life.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton play a married couple who learn they can't have children. After a good cry the two decide to make notes of the type of kid they'd like to have and that night they bury it in the garden and sure enough they wish comes true. It's really a shame that so many people have decided not to give this film any attention but I guess I can understand why. People see Disney and I guess they expect children movies and while there's nothing in this film that would be too harmful for kids, I think the target audience is going to be grown ups. THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN is a cute, charming, funny and at times incredibly sad film that has a lot of imagination working for it. If you need to have everything explained to you or if you must know how logically a kid can grow from a garden then it's probably best just to skip the film. The story itself is clearly meant to inspire people and touch them and I think it does a remarkable job at that. I thought the film was a lot of fun for a number of reasons including seeing two people get their wish of having a child and then having to deal with everything that comes with it. Since Timothy is a special child this adds more problems but I really loved how everyone in this small town and family connected to the kid. Be it the parents, the sports coach, the other kids or the family members. Both Garner and Edgerton do terrific jobs in the roles of the parents and CJ Adams is extremely good as the young boy. The supporting cast includes nice performances from M Emmet Walsh, Lois Smith, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dianne Wiest and it was great seeing David Morse playing the grandfather. The film certainly has a lot of messages but I found it as a parent just to be incredibly sweet, good natured and yes it was incredibly sad at parts. This is certainly a film that uses its imagination to make you smile and cry but there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

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.

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/

The film made me feel good and it made me laugh and there was some nice performances and a wonderful idea which they failed to develop and instead took the easy route with lazy writing and simplistic direction.

There were points where I was so invested in the story that I became angry and shouted at the screen for such obvious plot holes and dumb writing. As a fan of the director I thought he failed to bring his A game to this project and basically sold out on dealing with the more difficult questions which would inevitably arise from the complicated subject of child rearing and adoption and relationships etc. The film instead choose to be a whimsical fairy tale employing obvious tracts to jerk a tear from you.

The film could have been so much more if it did not seem so rushed to ultimately go no where leaving so many unexplained and problematic questions which were simply glossed over for convenience but left my brain hurting.

This is a prefect example of a film which falls in between the user rating system. I awarded this film a reluctant 7 (good) but I wanted to give it a perfect 6.5 (above average) though I thought it deserved more than an average 6 which I have awarded to films I describe as OK or passable but once we get to 5 it is a lost cause.

I only awarded it a higher mark than it deserved because by the end it is a feel good film with some bitter sweet old school narrative but at times it felt like it was written by a ten year old boy but a talented one 'who rocks, shoots the winning goal and has his mothers heart'.