"Secondhand Lions" Movie Review
Know Before You Go
Film/Video Reviews from a Family Perspective
Philip Boatwright, Editor
Secondhand Lions. Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Haley Joel Osment, Kyra Sedgwick (now there's a cast for ya). New Line Cinema. Comedic adventure/fable. WD-Tim McCanlies. 9/19/03
The opening scene has Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), a struggling divorcee who's completely inept at motherhood, driving her introverted 14-year-old son Walter (Haley Joel Osment) through rural Texas. Much to the boy's surprise, he is being taken to meet and stay on with two crusty old great uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall), while dear old Mom goes off to court stenographer school - or so she tells the boy. It's a klutzy scene. Osment, now going through that awkward stage with voice changes and facial features not quite settled, seems uncomfortable not just with his character's fate but with his dialogue as well. I was alarmed. Was this going to be another PG movie that we were to accept as quality family fare simply because there's no bad language? I actually uttered to myself, "Uh-oh." How glad I was the moment Robert Duvall and Michael Caine appeared, assuring us almost immediately that the characters were not going to be cartoonish, but complex and interesting. And how glad I am to report that "Secondhand Lions" quickly becomes one of the funniest, most charming and uplifting films of the year.
Set in early 1960s Texas, a quiet boy, abandoned for the summer on the farm of his unusual uncles, learns about their exotic and mysterious pasts as the men become role models and help the boy become a man.
As the story develops, Walter begins to take interest in the past lives of his uncles. During their youth, both men had great adventures. A teller of tales, which we are not sure are truth or imagined, Garth mesmerizes young Walter with the exploits of the brothers, which involves a love story with an exotic beauty and chronicles of derring-do. The Arabian Nights-styled accounts fascinate Walter and at the same time represent some of the lessons that the uncles are trying to teach him - what it is that a man does and how a man comports himself.
How do I describe Hub and Garth McCaan (Duvall and Caine)? Gruff, eccentric, old, none of those one-word descriptions seems adequate. For if any characters in recent cinema history have grasped the Big Picture of life, it's these two ol' boys.
While it is a word critics too often rely upon, delightful best describes these two veteran actors and the men they are portraying. Duvall's Hub could easily be the descendant of "Lonesome Dove's" Augustus McCrae and the more benign Garth (Caine) is a moral version of Peachy from "The Man Who Would Be King." The two actors make few if any false moves. They do so much with a mere glance, using dialogue only as a last resort in an effort to express their intensions and moods.
So versatile are Caine and Duvall that it would have been a simple task for them to switch roles, bringing equal integrity to either part. And though Duvall's Hub may seem the flashier of the two, Caine is never outgunned by his costar. Gone is his familiar cockney dialect, replaced by a believable, if hard to locate, southern accent. There is gentleness in his speech and movement that adds a dimension to the old codger character that many actors would have left out. Both actors inhabit their parts with empathy that never becomes maudlin. They find life amusing, because they have lived it and learned not to take things too seriously. They aren't silly. What makes them fun and funny is that they ignore the absurdities that still puzzle those around them.
Once past that clumsy opening scene, Osment also shines in a role that calls for him to be part Poindexter, part Hardy Boy. In "The Sixth Sense," Osment impressed because he revealed a quality found only in the best of the best - an ability to transmit a revelatory look into the mind and soul of his creation. Few actors are able to say so much with their eyes as this young thespian. You know just exactly what he's thinking. What's more he's always developing thoughts that are profound even when dealing with simplistic ideas. Here his Walter's young life has been marked by broken promises. He desperately needs to believe in something. While on his journey to manhood, Walter gets to wrestle a lion, introduce his gun-happy relatives to the sport of skeet shooting, and discover a cellar full of loot.
After he comes to love his uncles, a question arises as to how their fortune has been accumulated. Was it from an African prince who admired them as honorable adversaries, or did the two just rob a bank, as rumored by money grabbing distant kin? Are their stories true or just fables? Are they men of honor, or just loveable rogues? Young Walter discovers that to believe, you must have faith. (Hmmm.)
The film deals with the boy learning life lessons and we are reminded of the importance of a father figure upon a child's development. Many religious folk may at first be disappointed that as Hub describes what's truly important in life - courage, honor, and virtue - a reverence for God is not verbally included. But in the scene, and throughout the rest of the film, faith in things unseen subtly becomes evident.
You've heard the phrase, "This movie has something for everyone." This film certainly lives up to that credo. While it's a rite-of-passage for young people, it also addresses issues for the elderly. A bit "Stand By Me," a pinch of "To Kill A Mockingbird" and a smidgen of "Princess Bride," "Secondhand Lions" borrows from classic coming-of-age movies while adding its own charm. It is a great outdoor adventure for the entire family.
PG (26 expletives, mostly "damns" and "hells," but I caught no harsh or profane language; one use of the expression "By God"; shotguns are used to frighten off wearisome traveling salesmen and used instead of fishing poles (hilarious); after Hub beats the daylights out of some young hoodlums who taunt him (a fight scene, but handled with humor) he takes the young men home, feeds them, patches them up and then gives them a speech about becoming a man that actually connects with the young toughs).
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