Haley Joel Osment with uncles Michael Caine and Robert Duvall in “Secondhand Lions.”

“Secondhand Lions” is the story of an unwanted boy who finds love with the unlikeliest of relatives, two uncles so mysterious that it is impossible to verify anything about them. Uncles like this never existed, but legendary actors Michael Caine and Robert Duvall seem so genuine that we are swept up in the story anyway.

Haley Joe Osment, the young actor who showed his talent in “Sixth Sense” and “AI: Artificial Intelligence,” plays young boy Walter McCann with almost painful earnestness. His mother May dumps him off at his uncles’ Texas ranch and takes off for court reporting school. Instead, she marries somebody in Las Vegas. This is typical behavior for her.

Walter is so needy it seems impossible that his seemingly tough, hardened uncles will ever relate. Caine’s and Duvall’s deft touch as brothers Garth and Hub McCann somehow makes it believable. At some point, their derision becomes sympathy. Walter senses it, and a fledgling relationship begins.

Walter knows about the rumors-stoked by his mother-that
Garth and Hub were bank robbers and have millions stashed somewhere on their property. Walter discovers the stash and wonders if the rumors are true.

Maybe the money came from fortunes won during their African stint as French foreign legionnaires, if you can believe Garth’s stories. Maybe they really were bank robbers and have crafted these eleborate adventures to throw Walter off. It doesn’t matter. In his how-a-boy-becomes-a-man speech, part of which he gives to Haley, Hub says some things are worth believing in even if you can’t be sure they are true.

What really matters is that Hub cares enough about Walter to give the speech and let him live on the ranch. Watching and listening to Hub, I was reminded of my late grandfather, a pontificating man who loved physical challenges, constantly gave unsolicited advice and told moralizing, autobiographical stories which may or may not have been true. Looking back on his life, I can see that was his way of saying he cared. That is worth believing in.