Movie Review - The Odd Life of Timothy Green

The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) * * * *
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton and CJ Adams

From IMDB:
"After receiving bad news from a fertility doctor, Cindy and Jim Green try to bury their dreams of having a child by writing out all the great traits their child would have and putting them in a box in the garden. During a freak storm in the middle of the night, they awake to find a boy named Timothy, with leaves growing from his ankles, standing in their kitchen calling them mom and dad. Cindy and Jim are thrown into the midst of parenthood and over the coming months, Timothy will teach them more than they could have imagined about being parents and raising a child, no matter how he comes into their lives."

My Thoughts:
I've adored Jennifer Garner for years and years, and so even though I didn't think I was particularly interested in what seems at first glance to be a kid's movie, when Bob said he wanted to see it I was more than willing.  But it turns out that The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a thoroughly adorable movie suitable for both children and adults.

The story starts off a little sad as the couple find out they can never have children of their own, and they return home to their mid-western small town home and begin to deal with their grief by making a list of every great and awesome quality that they would want their child to posses, and burying the list in a box in their vegetable garden.

When Timothy first arrives they aren't quite sure what to think, or what to do, and as they try to introduce Timothy to their friends and family while making everything seems totally normal are hysterically funny.  Before long they realize that Timothy is, one by one, fulfilling all of the items on their original list.  Meanwhile, Timothy begins to lose the strange leaves attached to his legs, a fact which he carefully hides from his new parents, who try so hard to protect Timothy and make his life awesome while struggling to not make the mistakes of their own parents..

I won't spoil the ending even though it was predictable from the very beginning of the film, but in spite of the film's predictability it was satisfying, fun, cute, adorable, and nearly perfect in all of its' sugary sweetness.  Great writing and good pacing make this a fun movie, suitable for all ages.  I give it 4 stars, and Bob loved it.

Have you seen The Odd Life of Timothy Green yet?  What did you think?