The Odd Life of Timothy Green


I was invited to Disney's offsite event for The Odd Life of Timothy Green when I was in New York during BlogHer, and I was excited to attend since I had heard such great things about their events - last year they screened The Help to a packed audience in San Diego. We were treated to complimentary popcorn and soda at the theater, and I also attended the afterparty at Yotel, nearby the theater, where we got bags filled with goodies like green socks, fairy wings (in honor of their new Tinkerbell movie), and a notepad with a cover that contained seeds in it and can be planted.

The movie itself was very "Disney," which usually means that although it has a lot of morals and lessons in it, the story is sound and it's a good movie for families to see. Jim and Cindy Green (Joel Edgerton, Warrior, and Jennifer Garner, Arthur) desperately want to have a child, but are unable to conceive. They finally give up, and they write down all the qualities they would have liked their son or daughter to have, and put it in a hope box of sorts in the backyard. That night, there's a big storm, and they're woken up by noises in the house. They find a small boy, Timothy (CJ Adams, Dan in Real Life), in their house, covered in mud, and originally they think that he has run away from his family; until, that is, they see he has leaves growing from his legs.

They offered us tissues as we checked in for the movie which should clue you in - during parts of the movie there was definitely some sniffling going on around me. Although I like Jennifer Garner, she seemed to be overacting a little bit, but Joel Edgerton and newcomer CJ Adams, who plays Timothy, are both great, and the storyline is very interesting. The film actually starts out in the present, when Jim and Cindy are sitting in a room at an adoption agency trying to convince the agents there (including Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Sand and Fog) that they should be able to adopt, and they tell Timothy's story to them, which helped move the narrative along.

Yes, see this film, especially if you have kids - it's a good "family film" to see, especially compared to some of the other films in that genre currently playing. Timothy is a unique boy, and although the story is certainly fantastical, he seems just as real as any other child in the film, aside from the leaves on his legs. The cinematography in the film is beautiful as well, and the film is very visually pleasing.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green will be in theaters on August 15th, and is rated PG with a runtime of 104 minutes. 3 stars out of 5.

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