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Created Jun 05, 2008 01:14AM PST • Edited Jun 05, 2013 09:42PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Great-uncles lead to great adventure for a boy in need of a loving home. Some have put down this movie as sentimental and bland, but I found it wry and satisfying. Especially for boys and men, the resonance runs deep. Come to think of it, it would be the perfect movie to watch on Father’s Day, even though it’s primarily about a fatherless boy and his uncles.

   It helps that the three leads are among the best actors of their generations: Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as the eccentric great-uncles, and Haley Joel Osment as the nephew who brings out the best in them.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Caine, Duvall and Osment have the charisma, talent and skill to not overplay the material or step on each other’s performances, important qualities always, but especially so in gentle and heartwarming fare as this. Kyra Sedgwick does overplay her part, nearly chewing the scenery as Osment’s brassy narcissist of a mom.

   Caine and Duvall are known quantities, legendary actors each. So the big news is that Osment more than holds his own with them. The little boy who four years earlier whispered “I see dead people” has nicely matured into a young teen capable of handling complex emotional material.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Tall tales old and new are the stuff of childhood wonder, and this movie does a plenty credible job of spinning them.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Innocent 1.2

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Polite 1.3

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    A hero of the French Foreign Legion, a friendly lion, a sheik’s ransom paid in gold: tall tales indeed.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0