Rated
PG (Mild Thematic Elements and Brief Language)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 45 Minutes
Cast-
Jennifer
Garner-Cindy Green
Joel
Edgerton-Jim Green
C.J.
Adams-Timothy Green
Odeya
Rush-Joni Jerome
Rosemarie
DeWitt-Brenda Best
David
Morse-James Green, Sr.
M.
Emmet Walsh-Uncle Bub
Lois
Smith-Aunt Mel
Lonnie
Rashid Lynn, Jr./Common-Coach Cal
Ron
Livingston-Franklin Crudstaff
Dianne
Wiest-Ms. Bernice Crudstaff
Shohreh
Aghdashloo-Evette Onat
Directed
by Peter Hedges
 |
| That Miracle-Gro from Home Depot really works. Look, I grew a kid from the garden last night! |
Released
a year after the end of World War II in 1946, Frank Capra's "It's a
Wonderful Life," loosely based on Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 short
story The Greatest Gift, is a
timeless Hollywood classic that has sadly become a rarity as movie studios are
more concerned with chasing the almighty dollar in lieu of allowing writers to
simply tell good stories. Never descending into manufactured
over-sentimentalism, Capra grounds his characters and captures such genuine
emotion that you really start to believe that perhaps, just maybe, a guardian angel is 'out there' watching over us. When
James Stewart's George Bailey is at his lowest point and is about to commit
suicide by jumping off a bridge, I seriously
felt tears welling up in my eyes…but I had to contain myself or risk being
ridiculed by my classmates (this was during film class). With its themes of
unrealized dreams, of being constantly burdened with responsibility and
watching the world pass you by, Capra's classic has continued to strike a chord
with audiences for over six decades and of course, who could forget Donna Reed
as Bailey's ever-faithful wife Mary. Now Reed is the definition of classical beauty, although Grace Kelly and
Audrey Hepburn are equally valid choices. "It's a Wonderful Life"
truly earns the moniker of being 'magical' but nowadays, we get assembly line schlock
like "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" from novelist/writer/director
Peter Hedges. Definitely one of the strangest films to be released this summer,
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" has its heart in the right place but its
kid-friendly tone often clashes with the adult themes, making this a
nauseatingly hollow experience that overindulges in saccharine melodrama to the
point where it's liable to give you diabetes (no offense to actual diabetics).
Told as a story
within a story, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton), a
loving couple living in Middle America in the small rural town of Stanleyville,
are told that they are unable to conceive despite exhausting every available
medical option. The two try to move on with their lives but a stubborn Jim
wants to hold onto their dream for one
more night and with his wife, writes down all the attributes their ideal child
would have on pieces of paper. They then place the notes in a box and bury it
in the family garden. A freak thunderstorm occurs in the middle of the night where
the rain curiously pours only on the Green's residence. Woken up by the sound
of thunder, Jim goes to close an open screen door and comes face-to-face with a
ten-year-old boy covered in dirt and mud! With Cindy now awake as well, Jim and
his wife discover a giant hole in their garden, as if something or someone dug themselves up but even more
stranger is the fact that the boy standing before them has leaves growing out of his calves. Revealing his name to be Timothy
(C.J. Adams), he immediately begins calling the bewildered couple Mom and Dad,
claiming them as his parents. Thrust with such a sudden responsibility, Cindy
and Jim introduce Timothy as their newly adopted son while hiding his leaves
with knee-high socks. Falling in love with a solitary girl named Joni (Odeya
Rush), who also has a secret of her own, Timothy begins touching the lives of
those around him but it soon becomes clear that his time on Earth is limited.
A
child who was born from a garden due to a freak thunderstorm? Sounds like the
beginning of a terrible horror flick but "The Odd Life of Timothy
Green" is instead a mawkish melodrama that wants to capture the 'magical
realism' that characterized such films like Frank Capra's "It's a
Wonderful Life" yet the film just blunders along by relying on a tired
formula full of silly clichés. With every scene desperately screaming to its
audience 'Are you crying yet?! Are you?!,'
the film just reeks of manufactured sentimentalism at every turn, its syrupy sappiness
threatening to either make you throw up or roll your eyes in disbelief, perhaps
both! Written by Hedges with Ahmet Zappa (son of musician Frank Zappa), the script
commits a fatal mistake by having the story unfold through an awkward framed
narrative, robbing the film of whatever suspense it could've had. Since Timothy
does not appear in the present-day, it's immediately clear his fate is not a
happy one. Given all the tree symbolism being thrown around, one can make a
pretty accurate assumption as to what happens to him. The initial previews also
made it seem like Odeya Rush's Joni held a secret that would play a role in the
plot but the reveal (which happens early) is a major letdown and it makes
little sense for her to be so moody in the first place given how
inconsequential her dilemma is. Such asinine behavior permeates the film as
characters are little more than naive caricatures that lack any form of real-world
logic. When confronted with Timothy, Cindy and Jim just accept him as their son
without asking any questions, as do the rest of their extended family. No one
wonders where he came from or has any problem with this child just suddenly
standing out in the open with his arms stretched out and his eyes closed while
he soaks up the sun's rays like he's Superman. Such moments often end up being
unintentionally hilarious and it's hard to take any of this seriously. Timothy
even draws a self-portrait of Cindy's boss (Dianne Wiest) at the pencil museum
in a scene that's reminiscent of James Cameron's "Titanic"…but only
creepier. While I understand that Hedges wants to make a statement on the
hardships of parenting and that sometimes it's better to let children be children, none of the emotion ever
comes off as genuine. In order to retain its kid-friendly tone, these adult
themes have been diluted, where catharsis is achieved without the trauma. The
script is packed with subplots such as Jim trying to deal with his absentee
father to the economic recession that threatens the survival of the pencil factory
where everyone works but wanting the audience to believe that a child like
Timothy could 'inspire' everyone to
be better versions of themselves is a lot to ask for and therein lies the
problem: everything that happens is so calculated to elicit a certain emotion
that none of it feels real except for
one scene where Cindy and Jim, along with their son, partake in a spontaneous a
cappella to War's 1975 song Low Rider.
What's worse is that it feels unnecessarily cruel to give Cindy and Jim what
they want only to snatch it away at the last minute. While its earnestness is
admirable, "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" just tries too hard to be
loved but ends up being a shallow film that is far from being 'magical.'
Manipulative would be a more appropriate word.
Since this is a fairy tale,
there's little in the way of actual
acting but Jennifer Garner understands what kind of film she's in and throws
herself into her role with a dimpled smile, mugging the camera with every
opportunity. However, Joel Edgerton never looks comfortable and mumbles his way
through the dialogue. He's probably asking himself what the heck he's doing in
a film like this. As for C.J. Adams, his smile will cause those with mushy hearts
to go 'Awww!' but for me, I'll just say that he's a lot less grating compared
to most child actors yet he's not playing a character. Timothy exists as nothing
more than an excuse to engage in some preachy moralizing. As Joni, Odeya Rush
is the brooding girl that happens to be sweet on the inside. Making for a less
than compelling bunch, the rest of the cast are written as thinly-developed
caricatures. Rosemarie DeWitt is the nosy, competitive mom while David Morse is
utterly wasted as Jim's father as all he does is stand around looking stern…and
for that he earns a big fat paycheck. Ron Livingston and Dianne Wiest play the
money-grubbing town owners and you know
this because their last name is Crudstaff. Finally, there's hip-hop artist
Common as an angry soccer coach and Shohreh Aghdashloo as a skeptical case
worker at the adoption agency.
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" was
released on August 15, 2012 and has received mixed reviews with 43% on Rotten
Tomatoes. Critics found it 'ultimately too cloyingly sentimental—and thinly
scripted—to satisfy all but the least demanding viewers.' Mary Pols of TIME magazine even wrote that the film 'made
[her] want to go on a sugar cleanse.' I have to admit that if I didn't receive
passes for an advance screening, I wouldn't have paid to see this film. Despite
the applause at the end, the audience clearly found it silly judging from all
the unintentional laughs. As the summer movie season winds down, studios are
dumping whatever films they have left before releasing their potential awards
contenders in the fall. This weekend is one of the busiest with four new wide releases: this film,
"The Expendables 2," "ParaNorman," and "Sparkle."
Of course, "The Expendables 2" will top the box office while
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" will likely get lost in the shuffle
since its going after the same audience as "ParaNorman," which is
earning positive reviews. I commend Peter Hedges for wanting to tell a story
that explores the hardships of being a parent and that the reality is always
not what we dreamed about but "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" often
resorts to mawkish attempts to make you feel emotional. Yea, I was crying all
right…from laughing so much!
Final
Rating: 2 out of 5
Jim
Green: We made lots of mistakes.
Cindy
Green: We made mistakes trying to fix our mistakes.
Jim
Green: Isn't that what makes you a parent?
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