TWO HEART-WARMERS FOR THE SEASON
Have you ever had a lit course in which the teacher told you that sentimentality is bad? A lot of academicians call sentiment a false emotion because it’s overly emotional or unsophisticated. Balderdash, I say. There are times when it’s good, even necessary, to feel sentimental. Works don’t have to be stark, cynical, or “profound” to be worthwhile. Often a simple, heartwarming story uplifts us and edifies us. So it is with movies, especially at Christmastime. Two recent heart-warmers fall into this category.
The first heart-warmer is Second-Hand Lions, for my money the most original and most entertaining movie of 2003. Haley Joel Osment (of Sixth Sense and Pay It Forward) plays Walter, a young teen whose flaky, man-chasing mother leaves him in Texas with two eccentric great-uncles to head for the bright lights of Las Vegas. The uncles, played by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, live on a large farm with many pet animals and all kinds of quirky signs intended to discourage visitors: GO BACK NOW! EXTREME RADIATION DANGER. YOU WILL BE SHOT, etc. The uncles don’t take kindly to Walter’s arrival at first, but they warm up to him as time passes.
Second-Hand Lions is about love, underlyingly, but it’s also about our need to pay attention to others and truly listen to them. Walter’s mother obviously doesn’t give him the attention he needs or listen to his concerns. In sharp contrast, as the uncles and Walter get acquainted, they learn first to appreciate and eventually to love each other. Much of the movie is taken up with the uncles’ telling stories about the exploits of their fabulous past, with Walter all ears, and the dramatizing of these stories. In Second-Hand Lions, the importance of “story” as a key element of life is emphasized, as is the notion that every action we take is important.
Osment, Duvall, and Caine give excellent performances, and there are enough plot twists and turns to keep even the most jaded viewer engrossed. By the way, in case you’re wondering what the title means, let me just say that it’s both literal and symbolic.
Film Rating: PG
My Rating: 3 ¼ stars
The second heartwarmer is Radio, starring Cuba Gooding as a mildly retarded teenage black youth in 1970s South Carolina and Ed Harris as the high school football coach who befriends him. At the beginning of the story, young James Robert Kennedy pushes a grocery cart (the analogue of a bag lady’s bag, where he keeps the objects he collects) around the town of Anderson, having no real friends and talking to no one. But somehow he begins hanging around the high school, and pretty soon some of the members of the football team capture him and cruelly tie him up with tape and rope. Learning of this, the coach is outraged. He punishes the perpetrators and befriends James, who is soon nicknamed “Radio” because he always has one with him. Gradually, Radio is accepted by the team members and becomes a beloved fixture around the high school, though not without opposition from villainous types in the town.
We might at first think this is going to be a story of racial discrimination, but there’s more to it than that. Radio’s black complexion figures into his problems at some level, but the real discrimination here is against his slowness and “not-with-it” demeanor. The football team has plenty of strong, impressive black players who are seen as valuable because they help to win games. The coach responds to Radio’s problem, partly to make up for a wrong in his own past. In so doing, he exemplifies Jesus’ statement: “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Radio has a predictable, almost formulaic story, but it’s right on the money thematically. Besides its kindness theme, it also makes the point that, as Christians, it’s easy for us to become involved in a “project” (Radio is the coach’s project) while neglecting our own family members. Ed Harris plays the role of the coach with great feeling and skill, and Cuba Gooding gives an excellent performance in the title role.
Film Rating: PG
My Rating: 2 ¾ stars.
I heard no taking in vain of the Lord’s name in either or Second-Hand Lions or Radio, though I did hear an occasional four-letter word. Potential viewers need to be aware of that. Still, it’s hard to go wrong on these two.
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