Grizzly, Bearable

Boy-bear bonding is better than it sounds.

"A boy and his bear." Sounds like a loser, right? Surprisingly, it's not. Oh, it's no Toy Story, but Grizzly Falls is a whole lot better than it has any right to be, thanks in part to the casting of veteran actor Richard Harris and standout Aussie character actor Bryan Brown, but mainly due to writer Richard Beattie (Prom Night IV) and director Stewart Raffill (Adventures of the Wilderness Family), who treat the thing as a straight-ahead, old-time adventure yarn rather than a chance to preach to youngsters about why lying is bad, for example. The film's only real disappointment is that, despite the title, we never get anything close to a waterfall, save for a brief shot during the opening credits. The film's dialogue even seems to be pointing toward a climax at a waterfall, but nope. Still, one can hardly complain when there is so much beautiful Canadian scenery on display.

Things kick off in the present day, in a wraparound segment that isn't really essential to the movie other than to allow Harris the opportunity to narrate the rest of the story in flashback. As Harry, an old man taking his grandchildren on a camping trip, he frightens the young ones with tales of fierce bears and tells them that when he was their age, he had a degree in "bear-ology." The flashbacks begin, and a young Daniel Clark now plays Harry, a 13-year-old boy living with his terminally ill mother in England, while Dad, an adventurer, is off globe-trotting most of the time. Mom dies fairly soon, and Harry is shipped off to a stuffy boarding school.

Before you can say "Roald Dahl," however, Harry's father, Tyrone (Brown), returns from the Orient and whisks Harry off to Canada, where, for reasons that will later become clear, he has determined that the two of them are going to capture a live grizzly bear. Incidentally, the fact that Brown has a distinct Australian accent, Clark an American one, and Mom an English one is never addressed as an issue (which may, after all, be the best way to handle the whole thing). Once in Canada, Tyrone rustles up a group of five trappers to help with the task, notably the surly English hunter Genet (Oliver Tobias) and the traditional Indian sidekick Joshua (Tom Jackson), who, naturally, is stoic, wise, a great tracker, and always quick with an inspirational proverb ("A little faith can carry you a long way").

En route to finding the bear, there's some fairly standard stuff about father and son not really knowing one another, but before this can get too deep, Tyrone has captured two grizzly cubs. Big mistake. One large and angry mama bear soon shows up and makes off with Harry in retaliation. Despite assurances from his men that the boy must be dead, Tyrone sets off through the wilderness in pursuit, accompanied only by Joshua.

Harry, meanwhile, is far from dead. Despite a rocky beginning, he and the bear, whom he dubs "Mizzy" because she acts so miserable, are quickly bonding; Harry serves as a temporary replacement cub, and Mizzy is his surrogate mom. "The one good thing about being here is you don't make me eat too many vegetables," says a chipper Harry, who stays in far better shape than would any real-life kid who had been left out in the Canadian Rockies in wet clothes and forced to eat worms and raw carrion. Oh well, this is fantasy. Just make sure your kids don't try it.

Tyrone doesn't fare as well. Sustaining a broken arm and developing a fever, he starts to hallucinate about his father, who had abandoned him in this same area following a successful bear hunt. He has always vowed to do better but, of course, realizes that he communicates as poorly with his own son as his father did with him. Will he be upstaged as a parent by a wild animal? Can he break the cycle of abandonment? Or will he misread the bear's intentions and kill it?

Let's just say there's quite an exciting climax, which involves the bear knocking a shack down. Tyrone's men, led by the malicious Genet, have determined that the bear cubs will stay captive and the mother must die, even if Harry and Tyrone must die, too. (Next time, Tyrone, leave the ugly guy with the sinister British accent out of your search party!) It's all fairly fun stuff, augmented by sound effects that make the bear's footfalls sound like the T-Rex from Jurassic Park and its roar like a bass-heavy version of Godzilla. Kids should have a good time, but be warned: Even though Mizzy turns out to be benevolent, there are some bear attacks early on that may frighten the very young.

Brown is essentially playing a low-rent Crocodile Dundee here, but it's hard to imagine a kid who wouldn't like to have this guy as their father (except for the part about leaving his son in a boarding school, of course). Clark isn't especially memorable, but at least he's not actively annoying, as so many child stars are. And Richard Harris' performance is a nice touch, even if it isn't dramatically necessary. He does, however, set things up for a sequel. "You never saw her again?" ask the grandkids about Mizzy the bear. "That's another story for another time," he responds. Still, if it goes down as easy as this one, maybe no one will mind.