Directed by:
Tim McCanlies
Written by: Tim McCanlies
Produced by: David Kirschner, Scott Ross, Corey Sienega
Starring: Michael Caine, Robert Duvall,Haley Joel Osment, Nicky Katt,
Kyra Sedgwick
Music by: Patrick Doyle
Release date: September 19, 2003
Plot:
Fourteen-year-old Walter is left by his irresponsible mother, Mae,
to live for the summer with his reclusive, bachelor great uncles,
Hub and Garth. Despite living on a ramshackle Texas farm, they are
said to have a secret fortune and are made the target of every traveling
salesman. They, in turn, sit on their porch with shotguns, shooting
at the salesmen.
Walter is given
a room in the attic and is not welcomed by his uncles at first, until
they realize he annoys other gold-digging relatives who visit with
their children. Walter persuades his uncles to try spending some of
their money. Packets of seeds to plant a vegetable garden turn out
all to be corn. Then they order a lion for an animal target and end
up with an aging, tame, retired circus lioness, which they turn over
to Walter as a pet. Later, she is released by accident and takes to
the cornfield, which becomes her new "jungle" home. While loading
fifty-pound bags of Lion Chow, Hub passes out and is taken to the
hospital. After they leave they encounter four greasers at a roadside
store, who draw switchblades on Hub, but he easily beats them in a
fight.
A subplot develops
around the photograph of a beautiful woman that Walter finds in the
attic. In a series of flashbacks, Garth tells Walter the story of
their past in the French Foreign Legion, during which Hub fell in
love with an Arab princess named Jasmine, who was promised to a powerful
sheik. After Hub and Jasmine married, the sheik put a price on Hub's
head, keeping them in constant peril from assassins. Finally, Hub
won a duel against the sheik, but spared his life, warning him to
cease the manhunt. When Walter asks to hear more from Hub, his uncle
reveals that Jasmine and their baby died in childbirth. Hub then returned
to the French Foreign Legion, until he retired with Garth to their
farm, where they are resignedly waiting to die. Walter asks Hub for
confirmation, since his mother always lies to him. Hub responds with
a piece of his standard advice, that the actual truth is not as important
as belief in ideals. Walter then asks Hub to promise to be around
to give him the rest of the speech when he's old enough and Hub grudgingly
agrees.
Review: This
is a wonderful feel good movie. Complete with a balance of Heroes
and Villains. The story takes place in an America of the past. Where
things are still in transition from the first World War. The open
spaces of the land are still there to be challenged and tamed. And
people are sometime bigger then they may seem.
Our young protagonist needs to learn to survive this age of greed
and upheaval. And as fortune would have it, he is destined to be raised
by the most unlikely distant uncles anyone could ask for.
There are, in fact, several unique stories intertwined within the
main plot line. Each one with it's own journey and message. Sometimes
of hope and sometimes of resignation. The end is a bittersweet mixed
blessing. But then so are each of the characters.
Well worth watching with the whole family.
M J Flack