The "second-hand lion king" refers to the uncle that every boy should have, and every boy should spend the summer. Noone like Uncle or Summers ever existed, but it's not a good thing to think that Garth and Uncle Hub are waiting on a Texas farm, shooting fish and salesmen, waiting for their 12-year-old nephew to be dumped on them.
They are two completely unexplainable and unlikely characters, and we doubt we can believe anything about them, but in the hands of those divine actors Robert Duvall and Robert Duvall, their hearts are stirred by an inner belief, even if their stories even challenge the credulity of children. Maybe the center was really a soldier of the Foreign Legion, who had led thousands of men to fight, won, lost a dozen fortunes, maybe he really fell in love with the desert called Princess Jasmine, or maybe he was just sitting there in the courtyard of his credulous nephew in the entrance to make up absurd stories.
The nephew's name is Walter, and he is played by Haley Joel Osment, an actor in "Sixth Sense" and "Artificial Intelligence.". Artificial intelligence: "Now on the verge of adolescence, but still with a clear straightness, can be cut directly to the center of a scene." Some actors have a hard time standing in that kind of unadorned position, but Caine and Caine are no ordinary, they look the child in the eye and tell him what he needs to know.
Walter was decided by his mother (Kyra Sedgwick) to attend court report school and eventually became engaged to a man in Las Vegas. Things like this always happen to her. Walter's first impression of Garth and the Center was that of a terrible man; They appear to have been carved in American Gothic architecture, and they sat on high-backed chairs on the porch, like those who were ready to wait for death, no matter how long it took them. Walter understood that summer wasn't boring, when uncles started shooting at unwanted tourists.
They have a lot of traffic on the farm because there is news that they have millions of people hiding somewhere. Maybe they once worked with Al Capone (a local rumor), or maybe they kept one of the wealth centers, or maybe there weren't millions of dollars at all. The center and Garth's life was like a double act, providing them with a straight line as they planted a garden of unexpected corn, or having a circus lion be sent to the farm. (A giraffe also appears, but the film loses track of him.)
The plot, like this, is almost unnecessary. Yes, May showed up with her fiancé from Las Vegas, and yes, he wanted to get the money, but of course, Hub could handle him. Even on the day of his breakdown, and then while checking himself out in the hospital, we saw him ringing 4 times in a local bar and then giving them a special speech he often gave to young people. It has to do with believing something, even if it's not true, because the part of believing is what matters most.
The film, written by Tim McCanney, is a gentle yet sweet fantasy, full of love for the love between the brothers, and a respect for the boy's growth and curiosity. There are some flashback stories that take place in the story of Princess Jasmine and her jealous lover, and it seems that being a swordsman at the center will bring Zorro to shame. Are you sure? As long as you believe, who cares about you.
Watching the film, I was reminded of "Wireless Heroes" (1995), Diane Keaton's film about a young boy who lives with his uncles and is a world-class freak. The film is based on a memoir by Harry Knowles, who wrote "Secondhand Lion," which he seems to have done, though his friend Harry Knowles thought it might have been inspired by the childhood of Franz Lidz, the creator of "Calvin and Hobbes." Of course, the young Wall grew up to become a cartoonist, and his roles included some silly, heroic uncles and a used lion. To have that kind of childhood, you can use it as inspiration for comics, and that should be the goal of every child.