Odd Thomas – Movie Review

Residing in the small fictional Californian town of Pico Mundo lives Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin). Odd, to the unassuming eye, is nothing special. A fry cook with a small-town girl, Stormy (Addison Timlin), always by his side; Odd seems to live his life just as monotonous as anyone else you would meet in this unassuming town. Most would never deduce that Odd boasts an epic paranormal secret: He can literally see dead people.

Rather than scamper away from this gift he mastered as a child, Odd embraces it, going so far as to team up with Police Chief Porter (Willem Dafoe), and seizes every opportunity to quietly solve paranormal crimes…and put the deceased at ease. When Odd slowly begins to notice an influx of bodachs (spirits that feast on pain and death) coinciding with the appearance of a gentleman he deems ‘Fungus Man’, he quickly realizes there is a lot more coming, something evil that needs to be stopped before disaster befalls his beloved town.

Based on a series of Dean Koontz novels that this reviewer has never read, Odd Thomas as a film has a fine tightrope to walk. The overarching story is firmly rooted in the horror genre, while the characters (and especially Odd’s narration throughout) bring the film to life with an unexpected quirkiness and subtle humor that is often lacking in thematic material this dark. The horror-comedy is one of the hardest genres to work, this film even throws in a bit of mystery for good measure, and to that – Odd Thomas is assuredly a pleasant surprise.

This film lives and dies on the casting of its lead, and Anton Yelchin just feels as though he was nurtured from adolescence for the part. Odd needs to convey several aspects: He must be clever, charismatic, charming, yet also maintain a sense of perpetual dread. Yelchin carries this weight in spades. Odd may be accustomed to the absurdities of the paranormal, but that never seems to hinder his grasp of the ability and importance to others that those attributes afford him.

Yelchin saturates the film with an engrossing narration that propels both the character and story forward with an almost supernatural precision. Much like he did with his lead in the recent Fright Night remake, Yelchin continues to showcase why Hollywood should take a chance on the young actor and wager a large franchise on his more than capable shoulders.

As his ‘Girl Friday’, Timlin as Stormy is the perfect compliment to Odd’s Constantine Holmes, and her chemistry and rapport with Yelchin captures us from the first frame. Their whimsical romance establishes a much needed heart to the film and carries us through the final act. Willem Dafoe takes a welcome break from playing nefarious devils of his own, to gleefully play against type as Odd’s confidant, Chief Porter. His character is a refreshing departure from most films of this nature, as the police actually assist the local hero on his crusade instead of forcing him to loom in the shadows.

Stephen Sommers has a long history of big-budget filmmaking (The Mummy, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra), so it was rather surprising to see his name behind such a relatively small production. That seems to be a blessing as the film looks much crisper than its modest budget would lend one to believe. Sommers also has a confident handle on this type of material, think of the jovial bravado of Van Helsing or The Mummy. Thomas is firmly in the director’s wheelhouse of combining genres and it plays to his strengths.

The only real critique of the film would be with some of the special effects, the bodachs in particular. There are moments where these venomous creatures would be better served if the filmmakers took the design to a much darker place, a more horrific vision of hell instead of the somewhat generic representation they chose here. Fortunately, that is only a minor complaint.

Overall, the film is full of clever and engaging performances, a fun story and its 96-minute run time is the rare occasion of getting the length right. Odd Thomas is one paranormal investigator I cannot wait to watch in action again.

If $10 is the full price of admission, Odd Thomas is worth $7.50

 

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider