Blu-ray Review: The Odd Life of Timothy Green

STUDIO: Walt Disney Studios | DIRECTOR: Peter Hedges | CAST: Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, C.J. Adams, Odeya Rush, Dianne Wiest, Ron Livingston
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 12/4/2012 | PRICE: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99
BONUSES: featurettes, deleted scenes, music video, commentary
SPECS: PG | 105 min. | Family fantasy | 1.85:1 aspect ratio | DTS-HD 5.1 audio | English, French and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Sweet and funny, The Odd Life of Timothy Green is for movie lovers who enjoy their fantasy on the touching side.

The movie stars Jennifer Garner (Catch Me If You Can) and Joel Edgerton (Warrior) as a loving couple who have been told they’re out of options trying to have a baby. The couple spend one more night dreaming of the child they’d love to have. They write his attributes on pieces of paper, put them in a box and bury it in their backyard, along with their hopes.

But a magically rain brings Timothy (C.J. Adams, Dan in Real Life), who grew out of the earth with leaves around his ankles. The kind, loving and honest boy softens the hearts of everyone around him, teaching all about being a parent as well as a good person.

When The Odd Life of Timothy Green was in theaters, critics panned it for being sacarine and schmaultsy and, well, it is, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The family film is a modern fairy tale, complete with the feel-good happy ending.

Both Garner and Edgerton give good performances, but the standouts in the movie are Adams as Timothy and newcomer Odeya Rush, who reminds me of Chloe Moretz Grace in Let Me In. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of Rush inthe future.

Timothy Green also has fun performances by Ron Livingston (Dinner for Schmucks) and Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole), playing against type, David Morse (TV’s Treme) as his usual tough guy, Rosemarie DeWitt (The Watch) as Garner’s snotty sister and the fabulous M. Emmet Walsh (Youth in Revolt) and Lois Smith (Twister) as Garner’s loving aunt and uncle.

Even as he keeps the sweetness quotient high, writer/director Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life) moves the story forward and charms viewers with sun-drenched images of the movie’s idyllic neighborhood. All looks gorgeous in the Blu-ray’s high-definition picture, and the beautiful soundtrack by Geoff Zanelli is stunning coming through the speakers.

The making of the soundtrack is explored in the special features, especially Glen Hansard’s great song “This Gift,” which has a making-of featurette all of its own, exclusive for the Blu-ray. It’s a fun, interesting piece about Hansard and how the movie’s story touched Hansard and others. You might recognize the style of the song from the 2006 romance movie Once, which Hansard wrote the music for as well as starred in.

The making-of featurette for The Odd Life of Timothy Green itself is equally good. We discover that the film came about after Ahmet Zappa (TV: The Movie) brought to Hedges his idea of a couple who can’t have children plant their wishes in the ground and a boy grows out. Hedges took it from there.

The Blu-ray also contains five good deleted scenes, the music video for “This Gift” and a commentary by Hedges.

Buy or Rent The Odd Life of Timothy Green
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