The next movie in the Monday Night Movies in the Park series will be “Secondhand Lions” (2003; 109 minutes; PG), a wonderful film starring Michael Caine and Robert Duval, on July 28 at 8:15 pm in the Camden Amphitheatre. The movies are sponsored by the Camden Public Library and Camden National Bank. Bring blankets or chairs for seating; if the weather is rainy the movie will e shown indoors. The movies are free although donations will be gratefully accepted.
In this family-friendly comedy-drama, Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is a shy and bookish boy just short of his teens whose mother impulsively dumps him for the summer with his eccentric grand-uncles, Hub (Robert Duvall) and Garth (Michael Caine). Walter isn't especially happy about being left in the middle of Texas with two old men, while Hub and Garth aren’t too pleased to be stuck minding a boy, especially one who isn’t accustomed to hunting, fishing, or firearms. When Walter starts hearing local gossip about his uncles’ wild and wooly pasts, he begins asking a few questions, and while Hub and Garth don't enjoy having the boy poking into their pasts, as they start telling tales of their youthful adventures, they find themselves itching for some new adventures in their lives. Soon Walter is a semi-willing accomplice as his elderly guardians rediscover the wild, impulsive spirit of youth.
“’Secondhand Lions,’” says reviewer Roger Ebert, “is about the uncles every boy should have, and the summer every boy should spend. No uncles or summers like this ever existed, but isn’t it nice to think that Uncle Garth and Uncle Hub are waiting there on their Texas ranch, shooting at fish and salesmen, and waiting for their 12-year-old nephew to be dumped on them. They are two completely inexplicable and unlikely characters, and we doubt we can believe anything we learn about them, but in the hands of those sainted actors Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, they glow with a kind of inner conviction. . . . Maybe Hub really was a foreign legionnaire and led thousands of men into battle and won and lost a dozen fortunes, and maybe he really was in love with a desert princess named Jasmine, and then again maybe he’s just been sitting there on the porch with Garth making up tall tales for gullible nephews.”
A reviewer in Texas reported on the IMDB website: “The uncles are very realistic characterizations, and Texas holds many characters like them. The aging uncles had, as young men, gone away to find adventure, and lived on the edge for much of their lives. Then they returned home to retire in a rural Texas setting which they were finding to be just a little too tame, no longer remembering much about Texas country life except for acquiring the obligatory too many dogs. The uncles don’t say much to each other because there is no need to say much, they understand each other perfectly. Confronted with age, they seek out reckless behavior, unwilling to sit still and get older, unable to overtly give up on life.” And yes, there is a lion in the movie.
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