In the family-friendly Secondhand Lions, writer/director Tim McCanlies gives us a quirky look at an unconventional family. Throw together two wacky old uncles, a squeaky-voiced preteen, a flighty mom, several barnyard and exotic animals, and a 1960s backdrop, and you've got the unlikely ingredients for the wild and fun romp that is Lions. Does it work? For the most part.

Academy Award winners Michael Caine and Robert Duvall play Uncles Garth and Hub, respectively. These aren't your ordinary uncles. They've reappeared after 40 years of absence. They shoot at traveling salesmen from their front porch for sport. And the locals think they're both retired bank robbers with millions of dollars stashed away on their Texas farm.

Secondhand Lions

Secondhand Lions

Their nephew, Walter (Haley Joel Osment in a role that should have gone to a younger actor), gets dumped at the uncles' house as his mom, Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), heads off for school—or so she tells Walter. Now the fun begins as Walter, a shy kid, learns how to relate to his outlandish uncles—and how he fits in with this crazy farm family, all while being followed by one pig and five dogs, his constant companions.

McCanlies successfully conveys the quirkiness of his characters and script, but he over-reaches at times. Perhaps McCanlies fears that his audience will miss important metaphors, but I want to scream, "I get it!" when he lingers on the "used" (do you get it?) African lion (do you get it now?) the uncles bought to hunt for sport, but which Walter saves and subsequently cares for (do you get it yet?). While I grew impatient with these delays in moving the story along, perhaps they're necessary for younger viewers to get the point. Because of these delays, I found the movie incredibly slow-moving. Even the flashback action sequences seemed to lumber.

Secondhand Lions

Secondhand Lions

Still, those flashback sequences of a younger Garth and Hub contained some whimsical (African deserts and sheiks) and adventurous (horseback-riding and sword fighting) moments. These scenes—reminiscent of Indiana Jones and The Princess Bride—leave us rooting for the good guys (Garth and Hub) and booing the bad guys (the sheik and assassins). We learn more about Garth and Hub as people, and Walter becomes our gateway to the uncles as he begs Garth to tell him more and more of the story.

Are the bigger-than-life stories true? Should we really believe in such nonsense? Both Walter and the audience must decide what is true and in whom we should pledge our trust. Hub even challenges Walter on this very point, saying, "If you want to believe in something, then believe in it! Just because something isn't true, that's no reason you can't believe in it!" Well, nobody said the film was theologically correct. But it does leave you thinking about what you believe … and why. That's a mark of a good film. And in a way, it's scriptural: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15). This film at least gets us thinking along those lines: What do I believe? And why?

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Secondhand Lions

Secondhand Lions

Despite some of my difficulties with the film, families will appreciate a movie-night option that doesn't include nudity, vulgarity, or excessive violence. Lions will appeal to a more mature audience because of the solid acting duo of Caine and Duvall. It will also appeal to children because of its almost mythological feel (think The Princess Bride meets Aladdin). And who can resist Osment? Though a bit old for the role, his combination of naïve charm and persistent inquisitiveness indeed carry much of the movie.

> The DVD version of Lions contains standard features such as filmmaker commentary with the director, deleted or alternate scenes, and the original theatrical trailer. Three featurettes, though, go above and beyond the standard features: a journey of McCanlies' screenplay in Hollywood, an on-the-set vignette (a feature I'd like to see on all DVDs), and a profile piece of Osment's coming-of-age in the movie world and in his acting trade.

Talk About It

Discussion starters
  1. Lions forces us to reevaluate the traditional notion of family. Was this family "dysfunctional"? In what ways are all families "dysfunctional"? What does "family" mean to you?

  2. Walter must choose what he believes to be true about his uncles. Did they really find wealth in overseas adventures or were they bank robbers at some point? What did Walter choose to believe? Why? What does that say about him?

  3. Hub tells Walter, "If you want to believe in something, then believe in it! Just because something isn't true, that's no reason you can't believe in it!" Now read Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." What's the difference between Hub's statement and that in Hebrews?

  4. What, according to the movie, is a Secondhand Lion?

The Family Corner

For parents to consider

This family-friendly film is fairly innocuous. One character (Hub) cusses a bit (mostly hells and damns), there's some sword fighting, a fistfight, and a lion attack—but none of the scenes are bloody or violently depicted. It's more like the "comic violence" along the lines of The Princess Bride.

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What Other Critics Are Saying
compiled by Jeffrey Overstreet
from Film Forum, 09/25/03

When 12-year-old Walter's mother (Kyra Sedgwick) abandons him for the summer on the remote Texas farm of his two crazy uncles, he's scared and hurt. He's also skeptical about what he's been told: That Uncle Hub (Robert Duvall) and Uncle Garth (Michael Caine) have a fortune hidden on their property. As the days pass, Walter (Haley Joel Osment) warms up to the uncles, his imagination fueled by Garth's hard-to-believe tales about the adventures he and his brother enjoyed in foreign countries, battling nasty villains and defending the honor of a beautiful princess. He also learns why Uncle Hub is prone to fits of melancholy and sleepwalking. Could these guys be telling the truth? Could these geezers, who like to sit on their front porch and fire rifles at approaching salesmen, really be living legends?

Writer/director Tim McCanlies's film Secondhand Lions has a lot in common with the animated feature that he wrote a few years back: The Iron Giant. Both films are about a boy without a father figure. In both tales, a dislocated figure, larger-than-life and bit melancholy, inspires the boy, and is likewise inspired by his wide-eyed wonder and faith. The two films also include a meddling investigator who represents another possible father figure, a man who is rash and dangerous. And in the end, both films celebrate the value of imagination, faith in far-fetched ideas, and the idea that age has nothing to do with importance.

The veteran actors are in fine form as the grouchy old men, and Osment, although he may have been miscast as "an ordinary kid," shines in one emotional scene after another. The script is whimsical and full of ideas, but it spends too much time telling instead of showing. As a result, its multitudinous platitudes and morals feel tacked on. Fortunately for viewers, there is plenty to enjoy in spite of the sentimentalism.

Next week in Film Forum, I'll feature a chat with Tim McCanlies about his film. My full review and my interviews with Duvall, Caine, and Osment will appear in the new issue of Paste Magazine this month.

Other religious press critics are receiving the film with applause and enthusiasm, happy to have a family film they can recommend without apology.

Frederica Mathewes-Green (Our Sunday Visitor) describes it as "a sweet story … balanced by a sense of masculine nobility that is virtually never seen in movies."

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Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) agrees, calling it "a sweet, life-affirming tale. McCanlies … has struck cinematic gold by illustrating the impact that a father figure can have upon the development of a young and impressionable teen."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says it "hits all the right emotional notes, resulting in an enchanting story about family and the transmission of values as generations change hands." He also praises Duvall and Caine as "masters at the top of their game."

Steven D. Greydanus (Decent Films) objects to the film's central sentiment, spelled out in a speech that Hub (Duvall) gives to Walter: "If you want to believe in something, then believe in it! Just because something isn't true, that's no reason you can't believe in it!" Greydanus objects: "Expressed this way, this is bogus sentimentality, not belief or faith—and this notion casts a long shadow over the rest of the film. McCanlies's heart is in the right place, but his head could use a little straightening out."

Nevertheless, Greydanus gives Lions a pass: "What carries the film in spite of these weaknesses … are the appealing relationships that develop between Walter and his uncles, tongue-in-cheek serial-cliffhanger style flashbacks of derring-do … a couple of subversively funny subplots … and some good-hearted themes about responsibility, growing up, and old age."

The quote that bothers Greydanus actually makes good sense in context, according to Greg Wright (Hollywood Jesus). "In the context of the movie, the statement takes on an entirely different meaning: 'Believe the things that are important to believe, even if "facts," experience and the opinions of others contradict what you believe: because the appearance of things is only an illusion.' Secondhand Lions delivers much the same message. It's a message sorely needed today."

Bob Smithouser (Plugged In) writes that "[a] gifted cast, smart writing and [a] moral compass make this unassuming little film a good one for teens, parents and grandparents to experience together. It is without a doubt the pride of the fall movie season."

Michael Medved (Crosswalk) says, "The film's fairy-tale atmosphere and sentimental soul never detract from its earthy, irresistible humor or off-kilter wisdom."

John Thompson (Relevant) calls it "surprisingly satisfying. This film flies in the face of most modern, nihilistic, youth-obsessed Hollywood fare."

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"You'll think about the story long after you walk out of the theater," promises Holly McClure (Crosswalk). "It's a reminder of how important it is that a boy have a male role model in his life."

Steve Beard (Thunderstruck) says the film shows "how disjointed lives can be put into some kind of sensible order with love, virtue, and truth. This is the kind of story that Hollywood should be telling."

Cliff Vaughn (Ethics Daily) calls it "first-rate entertainment. The movie has touches of Don Juan de Marco and Princess Bride, and it is certainly as good as those films."

Tom Snyder (Movieguide) is bothered by "light obscenities" and what he perceives as the film's philosophy. He writes, "The idea that people are basically good is a Rousseauian Romantic, liberal notion that contradicts biblical truth and reality." And yet, he concludes that the movie "will lighten and enrich the hearts and minds of all who see it."

If you take your family, or see it on your own, let me know if you think this is the "treasure of the fall movie season", "certainly as good as The Princess Bride," or a film of "Rousseauian Romantic, liberal notions that contradicts biblical truth." I'm curious.

from Film Forum, 10/02/03

Following Holes, Secondhand Lions is the year's second unexpected family movie success story. Haley Joel Osment, Robert Duvall, and Michael Caine are impressing parents with their roles in director Tim McCanlies's whimsical story about a boy who finds much-needed father figures in his two eccentric uncles. The film has comedy, adventure, mystery, wild animals, and hidden treasure. It also has memorable performances, an unpredictable script, and a lot of heart. Last week, Film Forum featured early reviews. This week, more have come in, and so have impressive box office numbers.

At an early screening of the film, I joined other critics from the religious press to chat with Tim McCanlies and his cast. McCanlies does not look like a Hollywood filmmaker. He's an exuberant, down-to-earth Texan who clearly loves storytelling.

"I've been a writer for fifteen years in Hollywood and I had all these pent-up things I wanted to say," he says, referring to the many lessons learned by the young hero. "I guess I crammed it all into one script."

Young Walter is just the latest in a long tradition of big-screen kids who are either orphans or single-parented. When a critic asked McCanlies why this film and his previous family movie, an animated feature called The Iron Giant, have both been about fatherless boys, he explained. "When I was growing up, my father was in the military, so I was on my own a lot. People joke and ask, 'Why do kids in animated films have no parents, or only one parent?' And the glib answer is, "Well, that's one less person you have to animate."

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There are a lot of themes weaving through Lions. Did the director have one central idea he was trying to communicate? "In this case, I was really trying to get at what it is that men teach boys. This is a story about men that are sort of used up—'secondhand lions' if you will—and this kid who really needs them and how they save each other."

At the centerpiece of the film, Robert Duvall's character, Uncle Hub, talks about ethics—but the audience is only privy to half of the speech. Several of us wondered what was in the rest of that speech. McCanlies sighed, shrugged, and said, "Well, it took me a long time to write that first half of the speech. What you hear is just a small part—I think it's really an eight-hour speech. It was all I could do to come up with the part you heard in the movie. If you just give a speech [in a movie]—'Always be a good person!'—it can be really boring. It needed to be something [Walter] really needed to hear, in a specific rather than a general way."

And yet, McCanlies' morals never reach beyond simple ethics of kindness or faith in other people. "Because my father wasn't around much, I learned a lot of my lessons from books and movies. … Phillip Marlowe [is] a very moral man in an amoral world, who sets his own code. So when I was trying to figure on what this movie is really about, and circled in on 'What Men Teach Boys.' As I circled that, [the speech] seemed to be about 'You should have your own sense of honor.' Like Raymond Chandler. Even if you're in an amoral world. Even if people are around you are succeeding from cutting corners and cheating on their taxes and screwing over their neighbors. You should set your own moral code. You can't argue with a kid that money and power don't mean anything, because they do. It's easy for a kid to believe that people are no good, but you should still act as if they are, and you should believe that they are."

An interesting, if frustrating, philosophy. I wanted to ask McCanlies how we are to know good from evil if every man is free to "set his own moral code." (Duvall echoed McCanlies' sentiment, saying that he would like to teach each young man to "be a law unto himself.") Does he mean to suggest that there is no established moral code to be found and agreed upon? Are we being encouraged to develop something illusory? I also wanted the director to say more about the film's central message—"Believe in good things even if they don't seem to be true."

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But he had already moved on to explaining why the film is connecting with adult audiences. "I like movies with young protagonists in them, like To Kill a Mockingbird, that aren't really kids films. We adults … cynical adults, who are so jaded and don't sit still for much moralizing … when we're seeing the world through a kid's eyes again, we're more open to that sort of thing. We remember what it was like when we were kids. These movies tend to be period movies too. Maybe adults don't identify with kids these days because they listen to that 'silly rap music' and they dress with pants on backwards."

Finally, I asked McCanlies what he would say to those more conservative parents who would be offended by the film's harsher elements. Frankly, I found the portrayals of the two rough-edged uncles to be refreshingly honest. But surely there will be a few parents who complain about their liberal use of shotguns and rough language.

McCanlies replied, "I just write for me at the end of the day. We did that with Iron Giant … we were a bunch of adults making a kids' movie and we made the movie I wanted to see."

He quickly added, "I'm offended by certain things too. But if you were so completely scared [of offending people] I think you'd have a very bland movie sometimes. I don't think any of it is offensive. There are a lot of guns in this … but that's very Texan. If you drive by the Baptist Church in the area where I live … on Sundays, [you'll see] all of the pickups out there—which is every car in the parking lot—they all have a gun rack. Welcome to Texas!"

My complete review of the film and interviews with Duvall, Caine, and Osment are featured in the new issue of Paste Magazine.

Meanwhile, Christian press reviewers continue applauding the effort. Caroline Mooney (Christian Spotlight) calls Secondhand Lions "a heartwarming but bittersweet movie with superb acting. Prepare yourself for a nostalgic evening, tears of joy, humor and even a few unanswered questions."

And viewers are writing in with their reactions. D. James says, "We loved the movie, but did not like some of the language. Our kids are elementary age."

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T. Hollis says, "My family and my sister's family went to this movie together. We universally loved it. We are all Christians, and while the 'believe in something even if it isn't true' philosophy is wrong; the movie still carries a strong family message throughout. There was too much swearing, but don't let this detract from a great movie."

(Beware: Some minor spoilers are contained in the following responses.)

Herb Owen writes, "One thing missed by every critic I've read is what I perceive as the message of the film (as demonstrated by the title): just because you're old and a 'secondhand lion' (as was the case with the uncles and the lions), you may have one last job to do. In the case of the lion, it was saving Walter from his attacker. In the case of the uncles, it was raising Walter to be a man. This, to me, is the obvious message of the film and it certainly 'got through.' I loved it. I'm going back to see it again."

Fans of Robert Duvall's Oscar-winning role in Tender Mercies might find this particular letter interesting. It's from Allan Hubbard of Paris, Texas, who has an interesting connection to the actor:

"I couldn't wait to see Secondhand Lions … got there on opening weekend. The cast was great. The story idea was great. [I had] no problems with the production like continuity or anything like that. But the flow of the script? The actual lines delivered, therefore the writing of the film in general? Deplorable. I simply could not believe with so many other things going for it that the script's details got passed over. I'm really surprised to read the Christian critics are praising the writing.

"I was in a film with Duvall in 1982 … Tender Mercies. I was the little boy, Sonny. Now I'm 31 and still love to watch his very subtle yet amazingly gripping choices. The single most redeeming thing about Secondhand Lions is the speech he gives the punk in the bar about 'fought two world wars, led thousands of men into battle, and loved only one woman with a passion that a flea like you couldn't understand.' Great moment there."

from Film Forum, 10/09/03

Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, and Haley Joel Osment had religious press critics cheering for Secondhand Lionsa couple of weeks ago. This week, Josh Hurst (The Rebel Base) has a little trouble with it. "The only scene that gives us anything more than empty platitudes and hollow sentimentality is when young Walter confides to one of his uncles that he doesn't know what to believe in. The uncle's reply is horrifying; just believe in something, he advises, regardless of whether or not it's true. It gives us all a nice warm and fuzzy feeling inside, but the day it cures anyone's problems is the day Duvall is crowned Miss America."

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from Film Forum, 02/05/04

Reviewing the DVD release of Secondhand Lions, which he calls a "fantastic family-friendly film," Cliff Vaughn (Ethics Daily) encourages families who missed the film in theatres to catch it as a rental. "Films that defy categorization are often some of the best, and Lions fits this bill. The movie itself is one the family can watch together, and the DVD's special features further enhance its potential for a good addition to the home library. One of the draws of this DVD is the inclusion of the original, scripted ending."

Secondhand Lions
Our Rating
2½ Stars - Fair
Average Rating
 
(4 user ratings)ADD YOURSHelp
Mpaa Rating
PG (for thematic material, language and action violence)
Directed By
Tim McCanlies
Run Time
1 hour 49 minutes
Cast
Haley Joel Osment, Michael Caine, Robert Duvall
Theatre Release
September 19, 2003 by New Line Cinema
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