This
movie is kind of a celebration of two aging actors. Robert Duvall (The
Apostle) and Michael Cain (Dirty
Rotten Scoundrels) play the Brothers
McCann. Known to be loaded with money, they are stalked by money hungry
relatives and traveling salesman, and the gossip of the town has them as Mafia
hitmen, bankrobbers, and adventurers.
Enter
Walter (Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense),
their great nephew, whose mother is shamed by her family, but, she wants a
piece of the treasure, and leave Walter at the McCann’s in order to sniff out
the treasure. Walter can’t stand his mom, or her steady stream of bad news
boyfriends. Children in distress make for wonderful characters when played well.
Soon,
the grizzled old men open up to Walter and he to them, and they begin to bond.
The Old men begin buying strange things, like lions, and giraffes, and begin
telling Walter all sorts of Stories of strange adventures in the Africa with
the foreign legion. It has a Big Fish quality that I find so endearing. As the Old Testament in particular makes an emphasis, remembering the past is essential to a people and an individual.
Soon
his mother returns, and Walter’s education summer will begin to change things
for the better. The story is told very wel, and the old men are supreme in
their old age. It’s a really fun movie about growing up, and being a man, and
what makes a man a man. Learning and changing, how you handle trouble, and how you overcome circumstances. Clearly a 2 and worth watching.
