The Odd Life of Timothy Green - D+

​Quick Hit: Sappy and lovey, but loses sight of what could have made it great.

Walt Disney may have a reputation for taking movies and making them sappy lovey, everyone-learns-a-lesson-about-themselves-fests (something that scares me to death about their recent acquisition of Fox and, in particular, Deadpool). This movie is a perfect example of that. The ideas presented could be taken in a much more interesting place, but instead, ends up languishing in the feel-good/warm and fuzzy area.

To give a short summary, essentially a childless couple puts a box in the ground with all the ideas of what their child should be. The child comes to life, and proceeds to fix other problems.
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It comes together to be exactly what it sounds like. The parents, played by Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton, are fine. They have some moments where they have general chemistry, but none of it is that believable. The best scene they have together is probably when they are thinking of what they want their child to be. It’s the only one where their interactions together seem genuine. Timothy himself, played by CJ Adams, is fine. He’s presented as a strange child, but we never get to delve into just how strange. The film somehow manages to keep him as not the main character, despite the movie starring his name. This movie is clearly about the parents – and is worse for it because we’ve seen that story played out on film before.

There’s nothing particularly bad about the filming. Because it’s Disney, most of the film is done in a warm hue, particularly throughout the middle of the film. It keeps things glossy, and reminds me a bit of another film I watched earlier this year – Goodbye Christopher Robin. In the end, even the script feels generic. There’s nothing that feels original about this movie besides Timothy himself, who I already stated gets consistently shunted to the side.

I don’t think it’s surprising that I wasn’t a huge fan of this movie. It tried unsuccessfully to access my feelings as a father, and it felt too familiar to be anything more than average. In fact, I think it was slightly below average, and I’m giving it a “D+”.

​For more on this film, check out IMDB.