Sommers attempts to glue it all together with a raffish all-in-fun tone (despite some gory moments and unpleasant conceits), but the film is neither witty nor macabre enough to pull off Koontz’s balance of elements in cinematic terms. In the end, his mission makes no particular sense, capping a whole movie very busy with action and intrigue that all feel quite random. Trying to stop whatever cataclysm from happening, Odd jumps through a lot of hoops, his voiceover narration working overtime to explain why what we’ve just seen matters (or doesn’t, as some events turn out to be red herrings). Things don’t look good when he perceives a virtual riot of Bordachs in town, particularly wherever scruffy-looking loner Fungus Bob (Shuler Hensley) goes. Between this publicly unacknowledged job as a “detective for dead people” (or those who will be if he doesn’t intervene), Odd works as a short-order cook in his desert burg of Pico Mundo. He can also see Bordachs, nasty, slithering creatures invisible to the ordinary eye, their presence signaling mayhem to come they don’t cause harm, but are attracted to imminent death and suffering. These paranormal talents include seeing the unhappy dead, who often point him toward their unpunished killers. Yelchin’s Odd is aptly named, as he has certain abilities he needs to keep secret - from everyone save loyal girlfriend Stormy (Addison Timlin) and local police Chief Porter (Willem Dafoe) - lest he be thrown in the loony bin like his wildly temperamental mother (a very briefly seen Leonor Varela). Lawsuit-clouded status aside, its future looks brightest in home formats. In any case, this fantasy-comedy-thriller with Anton Yelchin as a clairvoyant hero is a slick, watchable piece, but the books’ juggling of tricky tonal and narrative devices translates into a screen result less clever than arbitrary and silly. The grousing so far is more about when fans can see it at all: Writer-director-producer Stephen Sommers’ film has been released in a few offshore territories, but remains hampered by legal disputes between companies involved.

This slick, watchable contraption represents yet another less-than-optimal Dean Koontz adaptation.įans of the prolific Dean Koontz are probably accustomed by now to less-than-optimal adaptations of his fiction, so there shouldn’t be too much grumbling about “Odd Thomas,” a would-be franchise launcher drawn from the first of six (to date) novels in the titular series. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz