First-rate stars propel 'Secondhand Lions'

Friday, September 19, 2003

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

When a director has two actors as iconic and skillful as Robert Duvall and Michael Caine for his leads, all he has to do is point the camera in their direction and it's hard to go wrong. And this is pretty much the case with Tim McCanlies' "Secondhand Lions."

MOVIE REVIEW

SECONDHAND LIONS

DIRECTOR: Tim McCanlies

CAST: Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Haley Joel Osment

RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes

RATING: PG for thematic material, language and action violence

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, Everett 9, Factoria, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Majestic Bay, Marysville Cinema 14, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Parkway Plaza 12, South Hill Mall, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B

The film's advertising makes it look like "Grumpy Old Men III," and it has a few of those elements, as well as its share of awkward transitions and overly broad Southern characters -- especially in its somewhat labored and predictable first act.

But it gets better as it goes along, spares us most of the usual geriatric jokes, manages to be genuinely surprising in some of its later turns and settles down to be an enjoyable vehicle for its two stars -- and the maturing Haley Joel Osment.

It's the story of a fatherless boy (Osment) whose trampy mother (Kyra Sedgwick) unloads him on his great uncles (Duvall and Caine): eccentric codgers who live on a rundown Texas farm where, rumor has it, they've stashed millions made during their adventurous youths.

Naturally, he doesn't want to be there and they don't much want him. But, through a series of episodes, they bond and the old men share the secrets of their past, which are dramatized in flashback and may or may not be whopping lies.

McCanlies (who co-wrote "The Iron Giant") is not quite an experienced enough director to draw a strong moral from such whimsical material, and he also has a hard time establishing his era: It's never clear if his story is taking place in the '50s, '60s or even the '70s.

But none of the film's many defects matter that much when the stars are on screen. Caine, the straight man of the team, never manages a convincing American accent but his stolid, agreeable presence magically bolsters his every scene.

And Duvall, who admits he's dusted off a lot of "Lonesome Dove's" Gus for the character, is flat-out magnificent. Even in a scene as improbable as the one in which he deftly knife-fights a gang of teenage thugs, he makes us believe in the man's -- and life's -- infinite possibilities.

Osment is also strong. That amazing intensity and authenticity that has made him the foremost child star of the past decade seems intact -- to the point that one suspects he might just make the difficult transition to adult star.