This is the kind of family movie I can appreciate. I had already seen Secondhand Lions when Matt asked me to review it; I was eager to watch it again.
The movie stars Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, two incredible actors, as eccentric brothers who are supposedly sitting on a small fortune. Walter is sent to live with his uncles by his mentally-absent mother. She asks him to find the fortune while she is in school. Unfortunately, Walter finds out that his mother has lied to him (nothing new) and is not attending school.
While he finds living with his uncles rough in the beginning, he get hooked on the stories they tell. If the stories are to be believed, his uncles were enlisted into the French Foreign Legion and fought many battles in Africa. His uncle, Hub, even fell in love with an Arabian princess and stole her from an evil sheik.
Once Walter has adjusted to living with his uncles he finds stability and peace for the first time in his life. No one has ever had time for Walter; his uncles have nothing but time. Predictably, once Walter finds happiness his mother returns and tries to remove him from his only true home. He begs her to stay and for once his mother puts him first and allows him to return to his beloved uncles.
In the end, the uncles die while attempting to fly an antique plane through the barn. Walter returns to the house and is not surprised to find the uncles have left their fortune to him. He is, however, surprised to find out their stories had all been true.
This movie is a gem. The comedy is real, not slapstick, it is shot beautifully and acted with a quiet grace. I not only give Secondhand Lions five stars, I highly recommend it to everyone, kids and grown-ups.
Michelle D. Kieffaber
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