Secondhand Lions Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)September 22nd, 2003
SECONDHAND LIONS
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A young adult film with a boy being dropped off to live with his two strange old grand-uncles.
The story revolves around the boy's adjustment and
his investigation into just what really is the
history of these two weird eccentrics. If you look at this as a serious adult film, it seems contrived and does not quite work. If you see it as the same sort of strange kids' story that HOLES was, it is
kind of fun. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
SECONDHAND LIONS is being marketed as a mature film to show off the acting talents of Robert Duvall and Michael Caine in a sort of character study. I suppose that is true as far as it goes, but an important point is being left out. This film is not so much an adult film as a young adult film that most of us can appreciate. It is a near-fantasy with a whimsical feel well attuned to teens. Duvall and Caine play Hub and Garth, two crusty old men with some kind of a past, but it is not clear what. These two weird old coots live off by themselves in the baked fields of Texas farm country. But I am getting ahead of myself. The real main character is Walter (Haley Joel Osment of THE SIXTH SENSE and A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE). Walter's mother Mae (Kyra Sedgewick) is a woman of checkered past industriously proceeding to checker her present and her future. Unannounced she drops Walter off at the farm of her two weird uncles. Before she goes she hints that the two might have a treasure hidden on premises and Walter might pass the time looking for it. Then Mae goes off to take a course on being a court reporter.
The uncles and Walter quickly come to an agreement. Walter does not think much of his eccentric uncles and they would prefer that Walter was someplace else. Walter has no idea what to do in a house with no telephone or television. He watches as his uncles take sport in shooting at traveling salesmen who come by. It is going to be a long and painful summer for Walter, or so it looks at first. It is no surprise that by the end of the film everyone has a great deal of affection for everyone else. The real question to be solved is not where the money is but what did Hub and Garth do during the forty years that they seem to have disappeared off the earth. Some say they were robbing banks. Garth tells Walter an outlandish tale of pulpish high adventure in North Africa.
Robert Duvall is one of our great actors and there are few roles anyone is likely to cast him in where his performance would be likely to disappoint. He is just fine as a Texas lunatic. Michael Caine, on the other hand, finds playing a Texan to be just a little beyond even his immense capabilities. It would be easy to pay too little attention to the performance of Haley Joel Osment, who is, after all, just a kid. But he also happens to have an interesting face that adds a lot to any scene that he is in. It may well be true that he serves the film better than Caine does. Walter, all grown up and benefiting from his experience with his uncles, is played by Josh Lucas of A BEAUTIFUL MIND and HULK. And the lesson he has learned is that it is better to believe in something that it is worth believing in than it is to believe in something less worthwhile even if you are sure it is true. (I am not certain that is not a dangerous or even immoral philosophy.) I noted watching the film that there was something in the score I could not describe but which reminded me of the score to MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. This score and that were contributed by Patrick Doyle. The film is written and directed by Tim McCanlies who wrote the screenplay for IRON GIANT, another adolescent film the whole family could enjoy.
I am not sure I can recommend this film whole-heartedly to adult viewers. Too much seems a little contrived and unreal. The story is just not told on a mature level. On the other hand SECONDHAND LIONS seems a very good match for teenagers. Now the question is how to get them to want to see it. I rate SECONDHAND LIONS a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
