Review: Timothy Green's life isn't odd, just old fashioned

"Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. We love our leaves on Krypton."

 Grade: C+

For years, pockets of society have railed pretty hard against Disney for making slight, unambitious entertainment that tries to please all but clearly only satiates a very specific majority: children.

As if that's a crime.

Disney has never had to make edgy, sharp entertainment; it's great if they do, but they never needed to develop fare that pushes the boundaries of art, nor should they be expected to, because their audience simply doesn't demand such "sophistication". Does this mean that Disney deserves any less regard as a credible creative force with the power to affect the masses? Not really, and even if the company did receive less regard for lacking creative ambition, I'm sure they could use a spare hundred or two from their coffers to dry their scant tears. So, when Disney releases something as rote, cute, and middle-of-the-road as Peter Hedge's The Odd Life of Timothy Green, there should be no cause for alarm (there won't be) or inflammatory criticisms. Simply, audiences should adjust their expectations and accept the fact that hedges flick won't set the world on fire, but the kids and families will get a mild kick out of it before their memory of Timothy Green's odd life falls away like leaves on an autumn tree.

Odd Life centers on Jim (Joel Edgerton) and Cindy (Jennifer Garner) Green, a small town couple who have struggled to bring a child of their own into the world. At the end of their rope after years of trying every medical option available, Jim and Cindy write down their wishes for a perfect kid and bury those wishes in their backyard garden, which seems suspiciously on-the-nose in its cutesy progressiveness. That same magical night upside-down rain falls from the heavens and out from the ground, literally, pops Timothy (CJ Adams), the most adorable and precocious 10-year old since Disney's last movie or show starring a precocious ten year old. With the exception of the leaves growing from his ankles, Timothy is the absolute child of Jim and Cindy's dreams. Once adjusted to the shock of having "birthed" a magical plant child, Jim and Cindy quickly open their hearts and home to Timothy, who has that ever-elusive power to positively change the lives of everyone within spitting distance, especially Jim and Cindy's less-than-loveable families. As his "parents" and the town come to love the eccentric Timothy, especially teen outcast and potential crush Loni (Odeya Rush), and his propensity to absorb sunlight for energy like Superboy's skinny cousin, the young man struggles to keep a devastating secret from Jim and Cindy that will change the course of their lives.

Hedges film, based on a story by Ahmet Zappa, handicaps itself early by working with a framed structure that telegraphs an ending that would have been far more effective without the framing. That structure, in combination with a languid pacing that is typical for prestige picks and films made before the turn of the century, may be a bit of a turn off to moviegoers still attuned to the flash and fire of the Summer Movie Season. Yet, the pacing is absolutely central to telling this type of psuedo-Oscar bait story about a relatively heavy topic as it lends some somberness in the moments where Timothy isn't letting his precociousness generate a few chuckles and chortles. Despite the slightly somber tone, Odd Life builds some humor out of the central conceit that Jim and Cindy's wishes were a tad incomplete, which makes Timothy appear to have his head firmly entrenched in the clouds as he doles out sage down-to-earth advice. Granted, Odd Life is far from a riotous experience, especially once the central joke wears thin, but it is amusing enough to keep the younger and younger at heart members of the audience from dozing.

Star CJ Adams does most of the heavy lifting with the comedy in Odd Life, bringing an easy charm and restraint to the proceedings that recalls Freddie Highmore's turn as Charlie in Tim Burton's Charlie & the Chocolate factory adaptation.Adams imbues Timothy with that fictional balance of old soul wisdom and childlike innocence to make Timothy a lot more bearable and lovable than he could have been. Making Adams job easier are Edgerton and Garner, who are both a tad saccharine and square but acceptable as Timothy's parents and straight man/woman. Edgerton acquaints himself fairly well, though he is mostly reduced to staring in shock or frowning as he grapples with a daddy-issue storyline. Garner, on the other hand, seems to have abandoned any pretense of embracing her athleticism and sexiness as she did at the height of Alias' popularity and become a real-life mom. On screen, there is little to hint that Garner was once kind of a big time action star as she ladles on the doting and a relentless stream of hugs and kisses. Together, the three make a cute (there's that word again) and reasonably convincing if not particularly memorable family who most won't mind spending an hour and a half with.

The family at the center of Odd Life, and the accompanying performances, is a perfect encapsulation of all that is wrong and right with Odd Life. It is twee but inoffensive. Slightly charming but possessed with a great potential to incite eye-rolling. Heartwarming but rote. Life-affirming but not particularly memorable. I can't begrudge Hedges and his crew for not aiming higher because they don't need to. Odd Life doesn't have to be a gritty affair that plunges into the depths of a marriage struggling under the weight of the couple's failure to reproduce. it merely has to be a mildly funny and sometimes spritely little tale about how one magical little boy changed one couple's, and a handful of townsfolk's, lives.In aiming for that target, Odd Life succeeds, just don't expect much more than that.

In-Between Observations:

•  David Morse, Ron Livingston, and Diane Weist all occupy small roles that add up to a handful of extended cameos; a sad waste of talent.
• Timothy Green's Odd Life is very much like the early days of kal-El's Strange Life; up to and including absorbing energy from the sun.
• CJ Adams has moments where his posture makes him look 62 rather than 12. If this is acting, great job; if not: poor kid.
• Mila Kunis+Sarah Hyland=Odeya Rush; there is nothing cookie cutter at all about Hollywood casting.