Hearts in Atlantis (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"It will be the kiss by which all others will be judged."
Starring Anton Yelchin, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis. Directed by Scott Hicks. Rated PG-13.
Film adaptations of Stephen King novels are notoriously uneven. For every Green Mile and Carrie, there's a Thinner and a Children of the Corn. Despite the dubious track record, Hearts in Atlantis seemed like it couldn't lose. The film, based on a) a critically acclaimed b) coming-of-age-tale with c) no elements of horror, would star d) Anthony Hopkins and be directed by e) Scott "Shine" Hicks. If all else fails, the resulting effort would at least have to be interesting.
Turns out that the movie is a great deal more than merely interesting. It's a wonderful, nostalgic piece, closest in mood and spirit of another great Stephen King movie: Stand By Me. Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) is an average pre-teen growing up in the 1960's. His father didn't leave them a penny when he left, as his bitter, self-absorbed mother Elizabeth (Hope Davis) doesn't fail to remind him every chance she gets. A boarder moves into the upstairs apartment, a kindly, slightly eccentric gentleman named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins).
Brautigan offers to pay Bobby a dollar a week to read the daily paper to him and, despite the warnings and suspicions of his mother, soon becomes a friend and a mentor. He's no child molester, but there's something strange about him all the same. He tells Bobby to look out for "low men" in the "Dickensian sense;" crooks who want something from him and will circle their prey like hyenas before moving in for the kill. Once in a while, he goes into a trance and wakes up with a yell. And how does he know all those things about everyone around him, anyway?
There is a supernatural element to the story, yes, but it is little more than a backdrop, a red herring for the simply elegant coming-of-age story that is the film's real concern. It is no accident that the "low men" are never anything but ciphers, and there are no dramatic showdowns with people hanging off catwalks by their fingernails. There is, however, a boy: a real boy, intelligent and not at all whiny, who, we suspect, will never be the same again.
It is a redundancy to say that Anthony Hopkins gives an Oscar-caliber performance, since every one of his roles fits that qualification. It should be said, though, that young Anton Yelchin, seen previously as the son of a Russian official in Along Came a Spider, could give Haley Joel Osment a run for his money as child acting prodigy of the moment; while Osment is amazing at playing characters in extraordinary situations, Yelchin, two years younger, excels at portraying a regular kid though he, too, radiates an intelligence beyond his years.
Had Hearts in Atlantis cut its first ten minutes and its last five, it may have been a masterpiece; instead, it hedges its bets on an awkward framing device, a series of present-day scenes where an adult Bobby is played by David Morse, that isn't in sync with the rest of the film. It's too easy a method to evoke a conventional feeling of "nostalgia," and it isn't really necessary, since Hicks does a terrific job of giving the rest of the film a nostalgic feel without additional exposition.
King's stories rarely pull any trademark manipulative punches, and Hearts in Atlantis has an unsentimental streak even as it works to make you cry. It's one of the year's most purely satisfying films.
Grade: B+
Up Next: Jeepers Creepers
©2001 Eugene Novikov
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