‘Secondhand Lions’ is an American family-friendly comedy written and directed by Tim McCanlies. He has directed several films. It is a splendid idea to have him directed this much-loved comedy. The story is set in Texas in the 1960s. It tells the story of an introverted 14-year-old boy, Walter Caldwell, who was left by his deceitful and irresponsible mother, Mae, to live for the whole summer with his erratic great-uncles, Hub(Robert Duvall) and Garth(Michael Caine). Haley Joel Osment is wonderful in the role of the poor child Walter.
Walter’s mother told Walter to find out where the two uncles had hidden all their money. He had never met his uncles before and had no idea how to kill his time in their house. To drive off boredom, they ordered a lion, Jasmine, with the intent to killing it for sport. However, she was too weak. Walter thus decided to keep it as pet. With nothing much to do but to get to know each other, Walter soon found himself entranced by Garth’s memories of the past adventures. The stories helped bring the two generations together and helped them get along well with each other. On another late night, Walter was so surprised that his mother and his new suitor, Stan, came to the farm. Nonetheless, they kept asking for the location of the fortune, claimed that Hub and Garth were actually bank robbers. To their dejection, Walter chose to believe in his two uncles instead of his mother. Eventually, Walter loved to live with uncle Hub and uncle Garth.
Robert Duvall who played the role of uncle Hub gave a clear image of retirement life. He insisted that gardening was what retired people did and thought that he was useless. Audiences can easily feel his depression. With the ‘What every boy needs to know about being a man’ speech, uncle Hub became a valuable old man in teaching the youngsters a lesson of morality. In the past, uncle Hub fought in many wars with uncle Garth. The friendship between them was unbreakable. The two uncles and Walter sat on the doorstep for the whole day top shoot the traveling salesmen who requested for money. This showed the characteristics of the two retired people. Garth once told true love story between Hub and his true love, Jasmine, to Walter. She however died in childbirth. The director has perfectly described how uncle Hub cherished the past memory and hot bored with the retirement life.
Walter Caldwell did not like the life in solitude on a farm at first. He found that it was so difficult to live for the entire summer with his reclusive and bachelor uncles without any entertainment. Through the stories told by Garth, their relationship got better and closer. When Walter’s mother wanted to lead Walter away to Las Vegas, he rebuffed and decided to stay on the farm with his uncles. Although his uncles thought they were going to pass away soon, Walter did not want them to leave him. The great changes of his attitude are the film’s highlights.
‘Secondhand Lions’ aims at bringing out the importance of family relationship and friendship. It also explains that being old is not meant to be useless, as a man’s body may grow old, but inside his spirit can still be as young and restless as ever. Friendship is a relationship between two people who hold mutual affection for each other. Hub and Garth helped each other a lot in the past. Without Hub’s help, Garth would have died in wars. As vocational pressures and family responsibilities become less, friendships become more important. All these elements make ‘Secondhand Lions’ not to be missed.
As a whole, it is a fairly impressing story that will enchant audiences of all ages. Will Walter live with his two uncles ever after? Is his mother going to leave him? Will uncle Hub and uncle Garth really die of old age? All these lingering questions can be answered in the film. ‘Secondhand Lions’ is highly recommended to all of you.