''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' is a 2012 American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

written and directed by Peter Hedges from a story by

Ahmet Zappa Ahmet Emuukha Rodan Zappa (born May 15, 1974) is an American musician and writer, and trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. Early life Ahmet Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the third of four children born to musician Frank Zappa and ...

. Starring

Jennifer Garner Jennifer Anne Garner (born April 17, 1972) is an American actress. Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, Garner studied theater at Denison University and began acting as an understudy for the Roundabout Theatre Compa ...

Joel Edgerton Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his appearance in the ''Star Wars'' films ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) as a young Owen Lars, a role he reprised i ...

Dianne Wiest Dianne Evelyn Wiest (; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986’s '' Hannah and Her Sisters'' and 1994’s ''Bullets over Broadway'' (both of which were directed by Woo ...

CJ Adams Cameron John Adams (born April 6, 2000) is an American actor. He made his acting debut in the film ''Dan in Real Life'' (2007) and became best known for his title role in the film ''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' (2012). Early life Adams was bo ...

Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt (born October 26, 1971) is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series '' Standoff'' (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on ''Un ...

Ron Livingston Ronald Joseph Livingston (born June 5, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for playing Peter Gibbons in the 1999 film ''Office Space'' and Captain Lewis Nixon III in the 2001 miniseries '' Band of Brothers.'' Livingston's other roles include ...

David Morse David Bowditch Morse (born October 11, 1953) is an American actor, singer, television director, and writer. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–88). His film ca ...

and

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally ...

, the film is about a magical pre-adolescent boy whose personality and naïveté have profound effects on the people in his town. The film was produced by

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

and released theatrically on August 15, 2012. It received mixed reviews from critics, earned $55.3 million on a $25 million budget and had modest ticket sales in its debut weekend. CJ Adams's performance won him a

Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

for Best Performance in a Feature Film, while

Odeya Rush Odeya Rushinek ( he, אודיה רושינק; born ), known professionally as Odeya Rush (), is an Israeli actress.Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

and DVD on December 4, 2012.

Plot

The film is told from the perspective of Cindy (

) and Jim Green (

), as they explain their experience with Timothy (

) in an effort to persuade an adoption agency to allow the couple to adopt a child. Cindy, who works in the town's local museum, and Jim, who is employed at the town's historic

pencil A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a tra ...

factory, reside in the fictitious town of Stanleyville, self-described as "the pencil capital of the world". The Greens are informed by doctors that they are unable to conceive. Distraught by the news, Jim convinces Cindy to dream up their ideal child and write the child's characteristics and life events on slips of notepad paper. The couple place the notes inside a wooden box and bury it in their backyard garden. After an immediate thunderstorm, which seemingly affects only their property, a ten-year-old arrives at their home claiming the Greens as his parents. After finding the box they buried smashed to pieces around a large hole in the ground where they originally buried it, and finding the boy inside their house, covered in mud, they realize that the boy, named Timothy, is actually a culmination of all their wishes of what their child would be. The Greens also discover that Timothy has a startling feature: he has leaves growing on his legs, which he can only cover up by wearing long tube socks. The next day, at a family picnic, Timothy is introduced to members of his family: Brenda Best (

), Cindy's pompous sister; James Green Sr. (

), Jim's estranged father; and Mel (

Lois Smith Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American character actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film ''East of Eden (film), East of Eden'', and later played supporting roles i ...

) and Bub (

M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including small but important supporting roles in dozens of major studio features of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in '' B ...

), Cindy's paternal aunt and uncle. The parents take Timothy to their friend and town

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, Reggie (

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and '' In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...

), where they learn that Timothy's leaves cannot be removed. Timothy begins to attend school, where he meets Joni Jerome (

Odeya Rush Odeya Rushinek ( he, אודיה רושינק; born ), known professionally as Odeya Rush (), is an Israeli actress.CJ Adams Cameron John Adams (born April 6, 2000) is an American actor. He made his acting debut in the film ''Dan in Real Life'' (2007) and became best known for his title role in the film ''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' (2012). Early life Adams was bo ...

as Timothy Green. Adams was chosen to be cast in the titular role after working with Hedges in '' Dan in Real Life''. *

as Cindy Green, James's wife who works at the Stanleyville local museum. *

as James Green, Cindy's husband who works in the pencil factory. *

Odeya Rush Odeya Rushinek ( he, אודיה רושינק; born ), known professionally as Odeya Rush (), is an Israeli actress.David Morse David Bowditch Morse (born October 11, 1953) is an American actor, singer, television director, and writer. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–88). His film ca ...

as James "Big Jim" Green Sr. *

as Brenda Best, Cindy's sister who brags about her own kids. *

as Franklin Crudstaff, Jim's boss. *

as Bernice Crudstaff, Cindy's boss. *

as Coach Cal *

Shohreh Aghdashloo Shohreh Aghdashloo ( fa, شهره آغداشلو, ; née Vaziri-Tabar (); 11 May 1952) is an Iranian and American actress. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in '' Chess of the Wind'' (1976). Her next two fil ...

as Evette Onat *

as Uncle Bub *

as Aunt Mel * Tim Guinee as Marty Rader (voice) *

as Reggie * James Rebhorn as Joseph Crudstaff * Michael Arden as Doug Wert *

Rhoda Griffis Rhoda Griffis (born January 9, 1965) is an American actress who has played supporting roles both in independent and mainstream films and television. Life and career Griffis appeared onstage in ''Angels in America'', ''Proof'', '' Collected Stor ...

as Dr. Lesley Hunt * DeShon Fanaka as Factory Worker (uncredited) * Dalton Morris as Banquet Hall Patron (uncredited)

Production

In June 2009, Peter Hedges was signed to write and direct the film, which stemmed from an idea brought about by

through his production company Monsterfoot Productions. The film is one of the first films produced by Scott Sanders Productions after a deal with the Walt Disney Studios was made in 2007.

Soundtrack

Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from The Walt Disney Company's motion picture studios, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its ...

released

Geoff Zanelli Geoffrey Zanelli is an American composer working primarily in the medium of film, television, and video game scores. His early career was notable for scoring additional music on roughly 30 film scores written by Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Harry ...

's score from the soundtrack on August 14, 2012, the day before the film's release.

Track listing

Reception

''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' was met with a mixed to negative reception. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reports that 36% of 132 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.2/10, offering the consensus: "It means well, but ''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' is ultimately too cloyingly sentimental—and thinly scripted—to satisfy all but the least demanding viewers." Mary Pols of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' wrote, "This is a movie about old-time values, a movie with

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...

aspirations. But Timothy’s life, his very conception by Zappa and Hedges, is definitely more odd than wonderful." Michael Phillips of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', praised the film's art direction and cast, "It's an elegant, honeyed production, photographed (in Georgia) by cinematographer

John Toll John Toll, (born June 15, 1952) is an American cinematographer and television producer. Toll's filmography spans a wide variety of genres, including epic period drama, comedy, science fiction, and contemporary drama. He won the Academy Awa ...

, and it's full of interesting actors." However, he differed on the script saying, "this fable of the gifted child doesn't go for the throat as it goes about its odd business."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' was more enthusiastic in his 3½ star review, calling it "a warm and lovely fantasy... on a picture-postcard farm in the middle of endlessly rolling hills where it is always

Indian Summer An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more s ...

" adding that "instead of being simpleminded like too many family films, it treats the characters with care and concern."

Box office

The film had a $2.3 million debut on August 15. It made $7.6 million in three days and finished the five-day weekend off with $15,100,918 domestically. The film grossed $51.9 million in North America.

Home media

''The Odd Life of Timothy Green'' was released by

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

and DVD on December 4, 2012.

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Odd Life Of Timothy Green, The 2012 films 2010s fantasy comedy-drama films American fantasy comedy-drama films Films about adoption Films about families Films about wish fulfillment Films scored by Geoff Zanelli Films set in North Carolina Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state) Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in North Carolina Magic realism films Walt Disney Pictures films 2012 comedy films 2012 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films