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Secondhand Lions (2003)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
19 September 2003 (USA) morePlot:
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. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
5 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(19 articles)
This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: August 11, 2009 (From Rope Of Silicon. 11 August 2009, 12:54 AM, PDT)
Secondhand Lions Warms Your Heart on Blu-ray on December 1st
(From MovieWeb. 4 August 2009, 6:22 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Gentle yet more substantial than a first viewing offers more (264 total)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG for thematic material, language and action violence.Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
111 min | USA:109 min | Argentina:120 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreCertification:
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:AtpFun Stuff
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. moreGoofs:
Revealing mistakes: The sections of the biplane have obviously been carefully inserted into precut holes made into the barn. moreQuotes:
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.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in 'Secondhand Lions': One Screenplay's Wild Ride in Hollywood (2004) (V) moreSoundtrack:
Texas Playboy Rag moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (264 total)
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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.)