The Heart is A Lonely Hunter

Hearts In Atlantis Dir: Scott Hicks Starring: Anthony Hopkins Anton Yelchin Hope Davis Mika Boorem 2001 PG0-13, 101  m RATING: 7 out of 10 Review Date: 2.15.02

Anton Yelchin and Mika Boorem shine in Hicks' uneven adaption of Stephen King's Hearts in Altlantis

Josh's Movie Minute Home

Probably the most disctinct element about Hearts in Atlantis is the way it provokes emotion through atmosphere more than with, what is, a weak narrative pull.   It is doused in a haze of memory and nostlagia, of fear and the unknown.  Director Scott Hicks seems busy in recereating the 1950's era, but the emotional tug that is expected never really hits a high note. Hearts in Atlantis stars Anton Yelchin as Bobby, a young boy living in rural middle America with his neglectful mother (Hope Davis), when an older man named Ted (the inimitable Anthony Hopkins) arrives to live in the suite above their home.  Bobby adn Ted soon become friends, and Ted hires him for $1 a week to read the paper to him.  The true prupose for hiring him, Ted reveals, is to inform him of "the Low Men," people looking for him becasue of Ted's strange quality to forsee the future. Stephen King penned the novel, but the movie has more to do with the relationship between Bobby and Ted than the supernatural.  It's actually more in the vein of Stand By Me.  In fact, were it not for the psychic overtimes, Hearts in Atlantis could have easily played out as a straight, coming-of-age drama.  Instead, the shift in tone misleads the audience with a schizophrenic mood that switches back and forth between dramatic arcs and hints of otherworldliness, making for, unfortunately a rather unstatisfying payoff. Both Hopkins and Yelchin are in fine form, making up for the uneven lulls in storytelling, with fine performances.  Hopkins excels at the these sort of father-type, knowledgeable roles, and newcomer Yelchin complements him with a believable heartelt turn as the stalwart, courageous Bobby.  Hope Davis is suitably (yet one-dimensional) icy as his self-absorbed mother), and as Bobby's girfriend, Boorem more than holds her own. Hearts in Atlantis is not near the caliber of King's other mainstream works that have reached the big screen, such as The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile. It is still, however,  a quiet, gentle, and well-acted and shot coming-of-age story.  With the supernatural backstory eschewed and a keener eye for character, this could have been a truly heart-tugging, powerful film, instead of only being strewn here and there with real emotion.