Secondhand Lions
Reviewed by Edward Larsen Terkelsen

USA, PG, 107 m, 2003
Directed by Tim McCanlies. Stars Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Haley Joel Osment, et al.

Set somewhere between the late 1950s and early 1960s, Secondhand Lions is an amiable coming-of-age story about a bashful, twelve-year-old boy named Walter (Haley Joel Osment), who’s sent by his flighty mother (Kyra Sedgwick) to spend the summer with his off-center (and supposedly moneyed) great-uncles, Garth and Hub (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall respectively). In seeming defiance of all the legends surrounding the enigmatic oldsters’ daring history and present monetary footing, Garth and Hub have assumed a modest lifestyle on a decayed homestead in rural Texas where they live with five mangy dogs, a pig and no TV. They’re mostly content to whittle away the hours on their front porch chewing tobacco, but occasionally amuse themselves by firing off their rifles in unison at the traveling salesmen that, lured by rumors of their fortune, come calling from time to time. Walter’s mother claims that she needs him to stay with the mischievous geezers while she leaves town to attend court-reporting school in Memphis, but her ulterior motive is to have sunny boy find out where Garth and Hub stash their fabled pile of millions. In fact, all the relatives are beginning to encircle Garth and Hub’s farm like vultures, hoping to partake in a hefty inheritance when the old coots kick off. 

At first, Walter isn’t too keen on the idea of spending his vacation with Garth and Hub, but he’s so desperate for a masculine presence in his life that he resolves to make it work. He has an ally in Garth, who is genuinely sympathetic to the boy’s predicament, but winning over Hub is going to take a bit more doing. Hub does come around, though, when he sees how Walter’s presence is pissing off their gold-digging kin. And soon Walter is even talking his great-uncles into expending some of their hoarded greenbacks: Garth takes up horticultural activities, while the more daring Hub procures a do-it-yourself airplane kit. (Of course, the end result of both projects is just short of disastrous.) The two also send away for an aged zoo lioness to use in the staging of a backyard safari, but the decrepit critter is spared a hide full of lead after Walter steps in and makes her his pet. He names her “Jasmine,” a nod to the mysterious desert beauty that Garth told him was once married to Hub.

Garth is full of stories about his and Hub’s exotic, swashbuckling past. We’re shown key pieces of the colorful yarns through flashbacks, which have a sort of Indiana Jones flavor to them. Director Tim McCanlies keeps the authenticity of these recollections ambiguous—we can’t always discern if Garth is just embellishing the truth or spinning flat-out whoppers. But when Walter confronts Hub about his mysterious past (which includes a stint in the French Foreign Legion, no less), the oldster reminds us that sometimes a person just needs to believe in something, regardless of whether it's true or not. 

Playing Hub with just the right mix of southern-fried probity and good ol’ boy rowdiness, Robert Duvall reassures us that he’s still one of the screen’s greatest character actors. With recent performances as varied and compelling as Euliss Dewey in The Apostle and Fish in the underrated Deep Impact, Duvall seems to be getting his second wind, and his work in Secondhand Lions stands among his finer performances. Michael Caine plays off of Duvall brilliantly; the two establish a hilarious rapport from the first frame. But as marvelous as they are, Haley Joel Osment doesn’t shrink back. He has no problem standing shoulder to shoulder with these two celebrated thespians.

September 13, 2003 

© Copyright 2008 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.