This is a very gentle film - not as gripping as Big Fish but in a similar genre - which is worth a second look and therefore a reappraisal.
Ostensibly a coming-of-age film, I saw it more as an abandoned child's (surely Walter is such) search for belonging: a search for affirmation that life is more than being cast-off as worthless by the person she/he loves, and therefore worth living. At one point Walter indicates that he is sick of being lied to by his mother, Mae, apparently always dumping him for the "new boyfriend" in her life. And thus we come to the crux of the movie.
"Secondhand Lions" refers as much to the curmudgeonly uncles, Garth and Hub, (eccentric characters wonderfully understated/underplayed by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) as it does to the "used" lion that the brothers purchase. Walter first becomes fascinated by Garth's fantastical tales of Africa, but when Garth "misremembers" the rescue of Jasmine, the only love of his brother's life, Walter starts to question the truth behind their past. Indeed, having witnessed Hub's (apparent) sleepwalking, Walter doubts the sanity of his uncles.
Earlier, however, on arrival at their decaying home, the child has discovered a well-traveled cabin trunk; and, upon opening it, discovers sand covering a portrait of whom he later learns is Jasmine - the love of Hub's life. Later, in a show of bravado when he names the ageing "secondhand" lion "Jasmine", the threads of Hub's story come together and, intriguingly enough, when Walter appears to be leaving, it is Hub whom he fiercely hugs. In a sense, Hub's loss of Jasmine mirrors his own emptiness.
OK. It's gentle, but I offer that the constant (I would argue not intrusive) symbolism and allegories work. Walter exposes a pointless existence in as much as the brothers are waiting to die - and gives them a reason to live. And, of course, they live beyond his and their wildest dreams. But those dreams are shown, finally, as truth. The denouement, twee as it might seem, fits the script. The treasure/money which Walter's mother Mae told him to seek becomes the love/relationship which he needed.
(By the way, it's OK to cry. Big boys do that too. I did.)
Ostensibly a coming-of-age film, I saw it more as an abandoned child's (surely Walter is such) search for belonging: a search for affirmation that life is more than being cast-off as worthless by the person she/he loves, and therefore worth living. At one point Walter indicates that he is sick of being lied to by his mother, Mae, apparently always dumping him for the "new boyfriend" in her life. And thus we come to the crux of the movie.
"Secondhand Lions" refers as much to the curmudgeonly uncles, Garth and Hub, (eccentric characters wonderfully understated/underplayed by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) as it does to the "used" lion that the brothers purchase. Walter first becomes fascinated by Garth's fantastical tales of Africa, but when Garth "misremembers" the rescue of Jasmine, the only love of his brother's life, Walter starts to question the truth behind their past. Indeed, having witnessed Hub's (apparent) sleepwalking, Walter doubts the sanity of his uncles.
Earlier, however, on arrival at their decaying home, the child has discovered a well-traveled cabin trunk; and, upon opening it, discovers sand covering a portrait of whom he later learns is Jasmine - the love of Hub's life. Later, in a show of bravado when he names the ageing "secondhand" lion "Jasmine", the threads of Hub's story come together and, intriguingly enough, when Walter appears to be leaving, it is Hub whom he fiercely hugs. In a sense, Hub's loss of Jasmine mirrors his own emptiness.
OK. It's gentle, but I offer that the constant (I would argue not intrusive) symbolism and allegories work. Walter exposes a pointless existence in as much as the brothers are waiting to die - and gives them a reason to live. And, of course, they live beyond his and their wildest dreams. But those dreams are shown, finally, as truth. The denouement, twee as it might seem, fits the script. The treasure/money which Walter's mother Mae told him to seek becomes the love/relationship which he needed.
(By the way, it's OK to cry. Big boys do that too. I did.)