Skip to main content

Forgotten Film Friday: Secondhand Lions

 A retrospective by Forrest Humphrey


So I'd like to kick off Robert Duvall month with what might be an odd pick, but hey, its Forgotten Film Friday and this was the movie that introduced me to the actor: Secondhand Lions. Released in 2003, the film is a comedy-drama set in the 1960's where Robert Duvall and Michael Caine play a pair of eccentric old uncles who have to watch their introverted nephew, played by a young Haley Joel Osment, while his ditzy mother goes to school, or so she claims. 

What unfolds is a frequently heartwarming and hilarious story where the young boy and old men start their time together aloof but grow closer and closer until by the end, they are as close as family could be. Duvall and Caine play perfectly off each other, as one would expect of two talented actors who have been in the business as long as they have. Duvall in particular is the star here, able to perfectly play a cranky old man slowly softened up by a youngster who desperately needs family, and his character's backstory gives him time to show his dramatic range too in several poignant scenes that might just tug at those heart strings. Caine might take a slight backseat in the film, but he's also excellent, and Osment can be a bit stiff or overplay a scene, but he's young, performs ably and sells his part just fine. 

A message in the film a love and didn't appreciate when I first saw it lies in the bond the two men form with their nephew and how they all help each other for the better. Family doesn't end with the immediate, and sometimes you find the love you need in unlikely places. It might be cheesy but its true. 

The movie does have a dedicated cult following, and I imagine many may have at least seen the beloved bar fight scene where Duvall hilariously schools a group of young thugs on how to fight when they try and act tough, or the unlikely series of events leading to a lion living in a cornfield. It might be tricky to find but I can't recommend the film enough. `Secondhand Lions` is sweet and wholesome, and it'll have you snickering the whole time too. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...
1 comment
Read more

John Candy month

 What can you say about John Candy? He was a comic genius who was taken from us too soon. There were a lot of comedic heavyweights of the eighties and nineties but Candy stood above most of them. If there is a Mount Rushmore of comedy I imagine John Candy would be on it. For the month of July we are honoring this comic genius. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Oscar bait month

 The Academy Awards. That time of the year when everyone debates what movies are truly the best and there is never a consensus and no one is ever happy. A movie can be incredibly popular and then it wins a bunch of Oscars and suddenly it's overrated and not very good or downright bad. It happens every year. But for the month of April let's take a look at those films that had Oscars on their mind and instead fell flat on their faces. Now Oscar Bait is a term that can also be applied to winners or films that did score a bunch of nominations. For example Bradley Cooper's film Maestro is very much an Oscar Bait movie even though it had a decent awards season. I want to talk about the films that did nothing. That were early contenders then either faded away eventually or just plain crashed and burned. Oscar Bait's biggest failures. What wrong here with these? Was the movie poor? Did something else just have a dominant run? Or were politics involved? Maybe all of the above. S...
Post a Comment
Read more