Secondhand Lions Starring Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Haley Joel Osment
An exuberant, vivacious and a very engaging movie with a great comic touch and a wonderfully oddball story.
A young boy Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is left by his flighty and irresponsible mother Mae in the care of her distant cousins, two grumpy rich elderly brothers, Hub (Robert Duvall) and Garth (Michael Caine) under the pretext that she’s going to study in college (eventually the boy finds out she lied). The brothers, according to the local rumors, have disappeared a long time ago and returned after many years with a load of money.
Greedy Mae instructs Walter to find out where the money is while she’s away. All Walter’s pleas to take him with her are being rejected as selfish and so he is forced to stay with his “uncles” who, quite frankly, at first seem to be way too eccentric and even a bit frightening, at least to the boy. The uncles’ real relation to Walter is never clear and it’s not important.
What is important is that the old guys, though gruff in the appearance, turn out to be diamond in the rough, very decent and compassionate men; young at heart and full of life, who are living their life according to the code of honor established in the old and more gentlemanly times. They take the boy in and gradually win his heart as well as teach him some very important life lessons. There is the incredible story the younger brother Garth weaves for Walter on the brothers’ totally unbelievable adventures in Africa and the Middle East. He tells a story of a distant land where Hub met his one and only love, Princess Jasmin. His stories seem to be a pure conjecture, too good to be true (which makes the end of the movie even sadder when it becomes clear that there was at least some truth to his stories).
At some point the brothers decide to recreate an African safari and the whole circus is brought to their house, including a giraffe and an old lioness. Walter pleads with the uncles not to harm her and so the lioness comes to stay with them in the small patch of a cornfield, where the tall corn reminds her of her native jungle. The animals in this movie do play a great part – for instance, I loved the pack of mutts and a piglet who were roaming the land around the brothers house , their naive and at the same time mischievous muzzles were incredibly funny! And then there was Jasmin the lioness, who died a heroic death, saving Walter from the greedy clutches of his mother’s boyfriend. The mother returned with a boyfriend in tow and they were itching to relieve Garth and Hub of their fortune.
Sam the boyfriend went as far as getting physically aggressive with Walter, but got stopped by the old lioness whose heart gave out from excitement. I honestly still have a lump in my throat remembering that scene.
It would not do to give out here all the secrets of the movie, not to spoil the impression for those, who have never seen it. One thing is certain – this film has left a deep impression on me with its unique mixture of drama and comedy, scenes of rural life and wild adventures in the Arab lands and, of course, most of all the wonderful actors Robert Duvall as Hub and Michael Caine as his younger brother. Nobody else would be that convincing in these roles, where the
most oddball pranks are just the means to spice up life and get rid of annoying relatives, but in the right moments their characters show courage, compassion and strength worthy to be an example for the boy Walter – another great work by Haley Joel Osment (though it does not look like he took any of these lessons in the real life!