Secondhand Lions
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTim McCanlies
Written byTim McCanlies
Produced byDavid Kirschner
Scott Ross
Corey Sienega
StarringMichael Caine
Robert Duvall
Haley Joel Osment
Nicky Katt
Kyra Sedgwick
CinematographyJack N. Green
Edited byDavid Moritz
Music byPatrick Doyle
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • September 19, 2003 (2003-09-19)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[1]
Box office$48.3 million[1]

Secondhand Lions is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who is sent to live with his eccentric great uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine) on a farm in Texas.

Plot

Fourteen-year-old Walter is left by his irresponsible mother, Mae, to live for the summer with his reclusive, bachelor great uncles, Hub and Garth. Despite living on a ramshackle Texas farm, they are said to have a secret fortune amassed from past adventures and are the target of every traveling salesman. They, in turn, sit on their porch with shotguns, shooting at the salesmen.

Walter is given a room in the attic and is not welcomed by his uncles at first, until they realize that Walter's presence annoys other gold-digging relatives. Walter persuades his uncles to try spending some of their money. Packets of seeds to plant a vegetable garden turn out all to be corn. The uncles then order a lion for a hunting target, but end up with a tame, retired circus lioness, who becomes Walter's pet.

While loading fifty-pound bags of Lion Chow, Hub faints and briefly goes to hospital. Later, at a roadside diner, four toughs pull switchblades on Hub, but he easily subdues them. Hub and Garth bring the teens home to patch them up, and find that the elderly lioness has escaped her cage, claiming the cornfield as her new "jungle" home. Hub gives the teens a speech about growing up and being men before sending them home.

A subplot develops around the photograph of a beautiful woman that Walter finds in the attic. Garth tells Walter the story of their past in the French Foreign Legion, during which Hub married an Arab princess named Jasmine, who was promised to a powerful sheikh. After living in constant peril from assassins, Hub spared the sheikh's life after a duel on condition that the manhunt ceased. However, Jasmine later died in childbirth and Hub returned to the French Foreign Legion, until he and Garth retired to their farm, where they are resignedly waiting to die.

Late one evening, Walter trails Garth and discovers that his uncles have a room filled with money underneath the barn. On another night, Mae arrives with her latest boyfriend, a supposed private investigator named Stan; he claims Hub, Garth, and Jasmine were bank robbers and demands the money's location. When Walter chooses to believe Garth's stories instead, Stan pins Walter down and beats him. The old lioness emerges from the cornfield and attacks Stan; awakened by the noise, Hub and Garth find that the animal has died of heart failure defending her “cub”.

The next day, Walter leaves with his mother. Once on the road, Mae explains that Stan will be staying with them to recuperate. Walter asks her to "do something that's best for me for once" and abandons her. While Hub and Garth are delighted to see him back, Walter insists changes must be made: His uncles must involve themselves in his education and live carefully, as he wants them to die of old age.

Seventeen years later, the local sheriff alerts Walter that his uncles have died after a failed stunt in their biplane. Walter returns to the farm and is given his uncles' will, which leaves everything to him. A helicopter bearing the logo Western Sahara Petroleum touches down near the farm, and a man steps out with his young son, explaining that he heard about Hub and Garth's deaths on the radio. He had recognized the names as the two Americans in tales told to him in his youth by his grandfather, "a very wealthy sheikh". When the man's young son asks Walter if his uncles really lived, Walter confirms, "Yeah. They really lived."

Cast

Closing credits

Director Tim McCanlies, who was an admirer of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, wrote requesting work of his to feature in the film.[2] Breathed sent the drawings of a strip called Walter and Jasmine, which is presented as the work of the grown-up Walter, and they also accompany the final credits.[3]

Critical reception

The film holds a 60% approval rating from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A wholesome but schmaltzy movie."[4] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Secondhand Lions (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 19, 2009.
  2. ↑ Scott Holleran, "Iron Lion: An Interview with Tim McCanlies", Box Office Mojo, October 16, 2003
  3. ↑ Communication Arts, issues 334-336; Breathed's work is featured on p.77
  4. ↑ "Secondhand Lions". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Secondhand Lions Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Home". Cinemascore. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
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