The Odd Life of Timothy Green Reviews
Top Critic
The film is schmaltzy and very saccharine, so sweet it'll give you a toothache.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
It's hard to believe that Hedges once wrote some decent light fiction (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, An Ocean in Iowa) before he started making greeting-card movies like Dan in Real Life and this one.
"There comes a point where "Odd Life of Timothy Green" is just too sentimental and too odd."
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
A fable about parenting and its accompanying joys and sorrows, done in the trademark Walt Disney style of pleasant, feel-good entertainment that doesn't leave much of an emotional trace.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Mostly, The Odd Life of Timothy Green feels contrived , if undeniably sweet.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
[It] feels like a retreat - into manufactured drama shellacked with sticky sentimentality, into risk-free storytelling full of coldly contrived conflict.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
It's the sort of thing you'll either find enchanting or an excellent reason to reach for the Scotch.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Anyone with an expectation of reality, or an aversion to mawkish melodrama, should probably stay home.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Hedges is a determined romantic and a bit of a saphead. He's also humane.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is the sort of movie you actually hope kids see. How rare is that?
Full Review
| Original Score: B
[It] invites critical derision, and Mom always taught me it was rude to refuse an invitation.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Someday we should hold a contest to see who's better at smiling through tears: Robin Williams or Jennifer Garner.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Not only is the story dreamed up by producer Ahmet Zappa even odder than the title indicates, its execution gets increasingly irritating as the film goes on.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
A sun-dappled, heartwarming family film about a 10-year-old who sprouts out of the garden one magic night. It stars an extraordinary boy, C.J. Adams, with an extraordinary pair of gray eyes that gleam with joy and insight.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The movie should have been called Diary of a Wimpy Forrest Gump.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
A pleasant if occasionally humdrum fairy tale, "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" lets us spend two hours in the company of some very nice people.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The ghastliness of this damp and squishy comedy is the byproduct of a confused and earnest sentimentality, a willful devotion to wide-eyed wonder that confuses simplicity with simple-mindedness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
It is sweet but tries to avoid sentimentality, at least for as long as it can. And the casting of CJ Adams as the title character goes a long way toward forgiving the lapses.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is Disney's formula flawlessly executed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The kind of full-bodied family film being pushed aside in favor of franchises and slam-bang confusion.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The movie's cloying cotton-candy flavor develops a seriously astringent aftertaste.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Timothy flings grown-up ideas at the viewer but rips the teeth from them rather than risk our discomfort.
If you're up for having your heart warmed... and have the patience to go on its short but sweet journey, [it] is truly a family fable for all ages.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
It made me want to go on a sugar cleanse.
The only thing growing in these rows is corn - the kind used to make high-fructose syrup.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Fantastic though the story may be, the people in it need to make it feel real, and no one in "Timothy Green" has any claim to authenticity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
With just the right dose of magic and no shortage of sentiment, this inspirational parenting tale from writer-director Peter Hedges plays like Mary Poppins in reverse.
A fairy tale about parenting that stays kid-friendly without completely glossing over the darker themes of its premise.
