Secondhand Lions [DVD] [2003]

The direction and sound is superb and the acting is believable if you can get past Caine’s inability to sound like a Texan. Director Tim McCanlies directorial debut keeps the story going and the end result is a nice surprise. It seems life can be fair after all. This makes for a good family film, especially for younger boys, but it’s nice to have a movie that exudes a wholesome atmosphere akin to a Mark Twain story. It may be another ‘coming of age’ story, but the cast and director make sure you are never bored.

Lots of extras are here, including the Director’s commentary (there’s some interested anecdotes), an ‘On The Set’ mini-documentary and another documentary on actor Haley Joel Osment, which is fairly amazing considering his age.

I saw the trailer for this and I must say I wasn't too excited, because from the trailer the film seems to just be about a boy who goes to stay with a couple of old men on a farm, then the boy (Walter) starts liking them. And this is fine for people who like that sort of thing but this film, but for those who want more, it's there and most trailers don't do it justice.

They say old people still have their memories, and this film certainly shows that using brilliant Indiana Jones-like action/comedy flashbacks.

But it still has the charm that a film set on a farm should have because the story is brilliant.

It is set primarily on a farm in Texas where two old men live. Apparently they have loads of money and Walter's mother wants him to try and find it. From the start you can tell she is quite selfish. Walter pretty much has to fend for himself and the curious, adventurous yet timid boy is excellently pulled off by Haley Joel Osment. Quite a few people go to the house but the two old men are simply no to be hassled, shooting most people who try to enter, and Michael Caine and Robert Duvall work extremely well together.

All three main characters change a lot during the film, either becoming more open, braver, or more caring.

The music and camera work was also very good, using many different styles of camera for different moods, and quick bursts of action music when needed. Also, none of the cheesy comedy music that sometimes spoils a joke and stops you from laughing.

One of the best films I have seen. 100%

They are actually his great-uncles, Garth (Michael Caine) and Hub (Robert Duvall), and while his mother insists that he has to do this because she is going off to court reporting school she keeps talking about the fact that these two old guys have got a lot of money buried someplace on the farm and either he can find out where it is or become so beloved by them that they will remember him in their will. There is another set of relatives who come for the weekend in their Sunday go to meeting clothes and they are not happy to see any competition. As for Garth and Hub, they like to sit on the front porch and shoot their shotguns at the salesman that come along and there are a lot of those, because it seems everybody knows that the two old coots have a lot of money and their own theory about how they got their hands on it in the first place.

There are no surprises here in that we know the young boy and the two old men are going to change each other. When one salesman actually has the nerve to come back and face those shotguns a second time it is Walter who suggests maybe they should find out what the guy is selling. That marks the beginning of a lot of changes as Garth and Hub start to buy a lot of things from seeds (mostly corn apparently) to a giraffe and, as the title indicates, a used lion. Actually a used lioness, who becomes the pet that Walter never had ("Secondhand Giraffe" does not have the same sense of flair apparently).

Most of the best parts of this film have Garth and Hub engaging in their eccentricities. They like to use their shotguns to fish and when a bunch of young hotheads try to pick a fight Hub at least is more than willing to show them the error of their ways (he also gives them another chance after showing them the correct way to use a knife). For his part Garth spends time now and then telling Walter the story behind Hub's habit of sleepwalking in the middle of the night. The story has to do with the young Garth (Kevin Haberer) and Hub (Christian Kane, a familiar face from the televison's "Angel"), who ended up in the French Foreign Legion and had some rather unbelievable adventures with a beautiful woman named Jasmine (Emmanuelle Vaugier) and a dastardly Sheik (Adam Ozturk).

The story might be unbelievable, but Walter has been getting bits and pieces of Hub's special speech that he always gives to young men. Walter is not old enough to get the whole speech yet, but the key part is apparently that being able to believe in something is important, even if what you believe in is not true. Of course the climax of this film involves young Walter coming to understand this great truth. This helps the message of this coming of age film work for youngsters watching the film who have neither a secondhand lion nor a pair of eccentric uncles in their lives.

While getting used to Haley Joel Osment's deeper voice is going to prove difficult for some people, the chief joy here is watching Duvall act just a bit nut and Caine lay on the American accent. Duvall is the most eccentric of the pair but Caine has this nice ability to manipulate his brother while still seeming to play the second fiddle. There is a rather neat payoff to what happens to Walter when he grows up as a result of this rather unique childhood but the film really does not have time to let us enjoy that at the end of the film. It will, however, compel you to watch the credits for a few additional tidbits.