A young adopted girl (Yara Shahidi) in Iowa discovers her destiny when she takes up butter carving and faces off against the local hometown champion (Jennifer Garner). Butter sounds cheesy, but director Jim Field Smith has the talent to carve out a real winner.   

Sometimes a story taps into a primal human desire, a need so intrinsic that it makes belief come to life. Screenwriter (and director) Peter Hedges, working from a story conceived by Frank Zappa’s son, Ahmet, dares to make audiences hope and believe in something so real with The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  

Longtime Hollywood director Garry Marshall's latest is yet another date movie that's less than the sum of its parts. The sheer number of A-list actors involved spells trouble. With half as many subplots, the filmmakers might have been able to keep the plates of passion spinning atop their spindly knees. Grade: C.  

Fashion photographer and swarmy cad Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) returns to the family estate of Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas) for the wedding of his younger brother (Breckin Meyer) and comes face-to-face with Jenny (Jennifer Garner), the one who got away. Connor cruises his sexscapade dreams with a disparate trio of spirit guides in search of true love, but the only spark of life here is the roguish Douglas. Grade: D.