Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

The movie is, essentially, a coming of age film, and a particularly good one, at that. It opens with a middle aged man, Bobby Garfield (David Morse), returning home for the funeral of his childhood best friend. While there, he stops by his old home and begins reminiscing in his mind's eye, remembering growing up with those with whom he had lost touch, his now deceased friend and his first girl friend, Carol Gerber (Mika Boorem).

The viewer then sees eleven year old Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) living with his selfish, self absorbed, widowed mother, Liz Garfield (Hope Davis) in that very same house. A mysterious older man, loner Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins), takes up residence in an upstairs apartment in that house. He becomes a sort of a grandfather figure to Bobby, and a warm relationship develops between the two. Bobby gets from Ted what he is unable to get from his mother. Ted helps Bobby at a time in his life, when he sorely needed an interested adult, as his mother seems unable or unwilling to step up to home plate.

Ted reveals to Bobby that some mysterious people, referred to only as the "low men" are after him. Ted enlists Bobby's aid in looking out for them. It also appears that Ted has some kind of extra sensory perception. It is a gift of which Bobby becomes aware, as Ted and Bobby begin to look out for each other. This apparent psychic ability, however, is not the focus of the movie and is somewhat incidental.

The film is simply an atmospheric, well rendered coming of age film, marked by nostalgia and the strong performances of its actors. Velvet voiced Anthony Hopkins is superb as the perceptive Ted Brautigan, giving yet another beautifully nuanced performance. Anton Yelchin is wonderfully natural in the role the young Bobby Garfield. The rest of the supporting cast is excellent, as well.

The only thing that mars the film is the reference to the "low men". At first, I thought it was to "law men" that Ted was referring. I found the use of the term "low men", without some explanation, distracting. Since William Goldman had apparently made changes to the book when he wrote the screenplay, he should have excised this term, as it serves only to be distracting rather than mysterious, especially as the "low men" seemed likely to be simply some sort of secret government agents.

The DVD provides the usual excellent sound and audio a viewer has come to expect from a high quality DVD. It has a feature length audio commentary of the film by its director, Scott Hicks, as well as a fairly lengthy interview with Anthony Hopkins, that makes the price of the DVD well worth it.

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What I find most amusing is that the theatrical films based on King novels have become the most literary and introspective works, while the chills n' thrills are relegated to TV miniseries, i.e. Rose Red.

Hearts in Atlantis continues the string of successful King adaptations such as Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and the underrated Dolores Claiborne. Anyone who has read the book already knows the story of Bobbie Garfield and Ted Brautigan in the fateful summer of 1960. "Low Men in Yellow Coats" was the most powerful story in the collection that make up Hearts, and the title actually comes from the second novella in the book, which features different characters in another time and place. In the book, the Low Men were tied to Stephen King's Dark Tower mythos, and I was hoping the movie would keep that connection; however, the screenwriters decided to make the movie self-contained and turned the Low Men into shadowy government figures, definitely human and not nearly as scary. But that's a minor thing.

Anthony Hopkins was his usual excellent self, but I was especially impressed by Hope Davis in the thankless role of Bobbie's mother. She managed to convey bitterness, sadness, love and fear in a very understated performance. I totally bought this character and felt that she was far more complex than the character of Brautigan.

The supporting players were not as well fleshed out, and I didn't care for the hackneyed subplot with the bullies. Most of the secondary characters and events from the book were cut severely for the film version in favor of concentrating on the three principal characters, which is kind of disappointing but understandable for reasons of length. However, I still felt at times as though I were watching the Cliff Notes version of the story.

Hearts in Atlantis is a quiet and effective coming-of-age tale that marries the strength of Stephen King's writing with a smart screenplay (courtesy of William Goldman), top-notch acting, and direction (Scott Hicks of Shine fame). I 'heart'-ily recommend it.

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