Secondhand Lions

Eccentric relatives are usually the relations that we learn the most from, whether it's the fact that we are taking life way to seriously or that we just need to relax and let things take their course. Here the relatives are played by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, as the uncles, and with the stories that they tell their nephew throughout the film you can just about see someone from your own family being to be played out in front of you. The story is laid out very well, and doesn't allow either of the two stars to take too much of a commanding position in the tale. Like in most families one brother is usually more domineering than the other and that is the case here, but the two complement each other in a way that you can tell that neither would have survived their lives if the other wasn't there. Walter's mother has just dropped him off with his rich, eccentric and gun toting great-uncles for the summer, and Walter is about to learn the life lessons he'll need to grow into a man. Almost the entire film takes place on the uncles farm, and through the stories that are told you realize that the reason for the uncles wanting to be alone is just that they had always lived their lives the way they wanted to and no one was going to stop them. The twists and turns that this tale takes are very well placed and keeps the story moving to the point that by the end you feel that you know these characters well enough to call them family.
This film will give you a new appreciation for the older relatives in your family, and make you wonder about the lives that they have lead and the stories that they told you. After watching this film I realized that my grandfather at one time or another told me stories about his youth and how things were different back in the day. Stories about how he lived and grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania and how he went into World War II and the fighting he did. Between the guns, the pet lion and the stash of money somewhere on the property it's like watching home movies of the family, well maybe not all of it, but I can dream can't I.