3.5 stars. Rating: PG, and needlessly, for mild (and fleeting) profanity
By Derrick Bang
Peter Hedges makes delightfully
idiosyncratic films about socially awkward and mildly eccentric characters
somewhat out of step with the real world: people not quite in synch with the
rest of us, and unable to figure out how to bridge that divide.
 |
| Rather perplexed by the ivy-esque leaves that appear to be fastened to the lower legs of the mysterious boy (Cameron "CJ" Adams) who entered their lives as in answer to a prayer, Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim (Joel Edgerton, far right) bring the little guy to a horticulturist (Lin-Manuel Miranda). He offer to clip off the leaves ... a suggestion that we just know is misguided. |
Hedges doesn’t work quickly; he
came to our attention back in 1993, when he adapted his own novel, What’s
Eating Gilbert Grape, for director Lasse Hallström. He followed that with
adaptations of two books by other authors — Jane Hamilton’s A Map of the
World and Nick Hornby’s About a Boy (the latter earning Hedges an Academy
Award nomination) — before taking the director’s chair for his next project,
2003’s Pieces of April.
Aside from giving Katie Holmes
her best role to date — and bringing co-star Patricia Clarkson an Oscar
nomination for supporting actress — Pieces of April established Hedges as a
writer/director with a fondness for wayward souls, and a solid sense of the way
people interact with each other. His next project, the 2007 romantic comedy Dan in Real Life, remains my favorite Steve Carell film.
All of which brings us to the
aptly titled The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a delicate, poignant little
fantasy that I suspect will have trouble finding an audience during these
noisy, action-oriented summer months. Timothy Green feels like a story that
might have been spun by the Brothers Grimm, were they among us today; this is a
fairy tale with a gentle message, and characters whose lives are changed by the
intervention of a supernatural being straight out of wish-fulfillment dreams.
The story is credited to Ahmet
Zappa, a low-profile actor making an intriguing writing debut; Hedges directed
and supplied the script. The result is whimsical, charming and completely
preposterous ... and that latter attribute is somewhat at odds with Hedges’
traditional strengths.
Because this narrative can’t
possibly take place in our world, despite his insistence that it’s doing
precisely that.
Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer
Garner and Joel Edgerton) live in the small town of Stanleyville, known as “the
pencil capital of the world.” Unfortunately, the growing proliferation of
computers, iPhones and the like have greatly diminished the demand for pencils,
and plant employees keep expecting manager Franklin Crudstaff (Ron Livingston)
to announce cutbacks and layoffs.
