This movie starts off pretty well, as a kid's irresponsible mother dumps him with a couple of unfriendly uncles she doesn't even know. And for the most part the movie is an enjoyably light movie with fun scenes involving traveling salesmen and worn out lions. It's got a Disney fun-for-the-whole-family feel and comes across as something genial and likable. Problems arise in the second half when the movie leans more heavily on dramatic elements. The movie assumes that if you put a sad kid with a couple of colorful relatives that a deep bond will form, and that may be so, but the movie really doesn't do anything to show us happening. They tell some entertaining stories, do some wacky stuff, and then there are tears and hugs and you just have to say, what's the big deal? One doesn't see a real bond form between the kid and his uncles, and even the bond between the uncles is more in the telling than the showing. The cast is good, but the writing is lazy, with a generic bad mother and the like. The last half hour is all drama and thus all hollow and tedious. If the movie had fulfilled the amusing promise of its first half I would have given it a 7 out of 10, but the last part barely musters a 4 so I rate the overall impact at a 5.
Review of Secondhand Lions
