Secondhand Lions (2003)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Tim McCanlies

Writer (WGA):

Tim McCanlies (written by)

Release Date:

19 September 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family

Plot:

A coming-of-age story about a shy, young boy sent by his irresponsible mother to spend the summer with his wealthy, eccentric uncles in Texas.

Plot Keywords:

Money | Lion | Texas | Eye Patch | Beach

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Garth
Robert Duvall	...	Hub
Haley Joel Osment	...	Walter
Kyra Sedgwick	...	Mae
Nicky Katt	...	Stan
Josh Lucas	...	Adult Walter
Michael O'Neill	...	Ralph
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Helen
Eric Balfour	...	Sheik's Grandson
Christian Kane	...	Young Hub
Kevin Haberer	...	Young Garth
Emmanuelle Vaugier	...	Jasmine
Adam Ozturk	...	The Sheik
Jennifer Stone	...	Martha
Mitchel Musso	...	Boy

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material, language and action violence.

Runtime:

111 min | USA:109 min | Argentina:120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:LH | Malaysia:U | Netherlands:6 | South Korea:12 | Germany:o.Al. | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Brazil:Livre | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | UK:12 (video rating) | UK:PG (theatrical rating) (cut) | USA:PG (certificate #40021) | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

EASTER EGG: On the special features side of the DVD, go to the deleted scenes section. While at the top of the list, press the "up" button on your remote control and a star will appear and be highlighted. Press the "Okay" button and a clip of outtakes will come on showing all of the filmmakers' attempts at trying to put the rooster on the pig.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The sections of the biplane have obviously been carefully inserted into precut holes made into the barn.

Quotes:

Walter: What's wrong with him?
Garth: Well, a man's body may grow old, but inside his spirit can still be as young and as restless as ever.
Garth: And him - in his day, he had more spirit than twenty men.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'Secondhand Lions': One Screenplay's Wild Ride in Hollywood (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Texas Playboy Rag

Gentle yet more substantial than a first viewing offers

This is a very gentle film - not as gripping as Big Fish but in a similar genre - which is worth a second look and therefore a reappraisal.

Ostensibly a coming-of-age film, I saw it more as an abandoned child's (surely Walter is such) search for belonging: a search for affirmation that life is more than being cast-off as worthless by the person she/he loves, and therefore worth living. At one point Walter indicates that he is sick of being lied to by his mother, Mae, apparently always dumping him for the "new boyfriend" in her life. And thus we come to the crux of the movie.

"Secondhand Lions" refers as much to the curmudgeonly uncles, Garth and Hub, (eccentric characters wonderfully understated/underplayed by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) as it does to the "used" lion that the brothers purchase. Walter first becomes fascinated by Garth's fantastical tales of Africa, but when Garth "misremembers" the rescue of Jasmine, the only love of his brother's life, Walter starts to question the truth behind their past. Indeed, having witnessed Hub's (apparent) sleepwalking, Walter doubts the sanity of his uncles.

Earlier, however, on arrival at their decaying home, the child has discovered a well-traveled cabin trunk; and, upon opening it, discovers sand covering a portrait of whom he later learns is Jasmine - the love of Hub's life. Later, in a show of bravado when he names the ageing "secondhand" lion "Jasmine", the threads of Hub's story come together and, intriguingly enough, when Walter appears to be leaving, it is Hub whom he fiercely hugs. In a sense, Hub's loss of Jasmine mirrors his own emptiness.

OK. It's gentle, but I offer that the constant (I would argue not intrusive) symbolism and allegories work. Walter exposes a pointless existence in as much as the brothers are waiting to die - and gives them a reason to live. And, of course, they live beyond his and their wildest dreams. But those dreams are shown, finally, as truth. The denouement, twee as it might seem, fits the script. The treasure/money which Walter's mother Mae told him to seek becomes the love/relationship which he needed.

(By the way, it's OK to cry. Big boys do that too. I did.)