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Hearts in Atlantis
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USA, 2001. Rated R. 110 minutes.
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin,
Hope Davis, Mika Boorem, David Morse, Will Rothhaar, Dierdre O'Connell
Writers: William Goldman, based on the short stories "Low
Men in Yellow Coats" and "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling"
(from the book Hearts in Atlantis), by Stephen King
Music: Mychael Danna
Cinematographer: Piotr Sobocinski
Producer: Kerry Heysen
Director: Scott Hicks
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here
is a place for movies like Hearts in Atlantis. Big, syrupy, feel-good
coming-of-age stories with a heavy dose of nostalgia for The Way Things Never
Were. Particularly now, in the aftermath of the horrifying and heinous attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a safe movie like Hearts in Atlantis
should strike a responsive chord. The emotional arc is all-too-predictable,
but perhaps a well made production that evokes expected feelings at conventional
points in the story is a good thing right now--emotional predictability as an
antidote to the emotional unpredictability of the past few weeks.
Like Frank Darabont's The
Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile,
Hearts in Atlantis is based on two short stories by Stephen King. The
screenplay is written by William Goldman, who has worked with material by Stephen
King before (Misery) and will again (Dreamcatcher, slated for
2002). Director Scott Hicks (Shine, Snow Falling on Cedars) goes for
the same gentle grace as the two Darabont films, with inferior results--this
film seems directed by Darabont Lite.
Hearts in Atlantis opens with a similar nostalgic flashback device as
The Green Mile. We meet Bobby Garfield (David Morse) as a fifty-year
old adult when he gets word of the death of a childhood friend. Hicks then takes
us back to 1960, when Bobby, now played by Anton Yelchin, was eleven years old.
He and his two best friends, Carol (Mika Boorem) and Sully (Will Rothhaar),
are innocent and carefree in the way that movie kids are innocent and carefree,
which involves a lot of playing in water and walking on railroad tracks, accompanied
by Mychael Danna's cloying score. Bobby's mother, the self-pitying Liz (Hope
Davis), is not innocent and carefree, however. She is overworked by her slimy
boss, has been a widow since Bobby was five, and is still paying off her late
husband's debts.
Bobby's flashback begins with the arrival of Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins),
the new boarder living upstairs from Bobby and Liz. Lacking a father figure,
Bobby is drawn to the kindly but mysterious Ted, who consistently dodges questions
about his past. Ted is hiding from something. He hires Bobby to read him the
newspaper every day (his eyes are failing, Ted says) and to watch out for "Low
Men"--shifty individuals in snazzy cars and dark hats. As Ted and Bobby's relationship
deepens, Liz's mistrust of Ted grows.
Ted's exact history remains unknown, but we do learn that he has some kind
of extra-sensory perception. He can See Things--events in people's past or future,
as well as the secrets they are hiding. He can pass this gift to someone else,
even inadvertently, if he is touched at the wrong time. Naturally, Bobby does
so and begins to see things himself, but this narrative thread is not pursued
and left dissatisfyingly unsettled. Hicks prefers to focus on Bobby's budding
romance with Carol, revelations about Bobby's allegedly no-account father, and
Bobby's relationship with his mother. Meanwhile, the Low Men close in.
In truth, Hearts in Atlantis needn't have a supernatural dimension at
all. That element has been de-emphasized, and is not central to Bobby's coming
of age, which is what the movie is really about. Hicks and Goldman mix in the
supernatural, perhaps for marketing reasons, without capitalizing on or resolving
it. The supernatural distracts from the character-driven movie Hicks and Goldman
want to make, while the character-driven coming-of-age story never fully takes
over from the broader-scope supernatural tale Hearts in Atlantis could
have been.
Hopkins is the movie's strongest asset. He is, as always, a mesmeric performer,
transcending the mediocre material, as he's done all too often of late. Hopkins
is the only actor in the movie underplaying his role, and for that reason he
stands out all the more. Curiously, Hicks' direction follows suit--quiet and
unobtrusive when Hopkins is on screen, schmaltzy and overwrought at all other
times. A particularly overcooked sequence has Bobby struggling to carry a friend
to safety, during which Hicks has placed on the soundtrack sounds of a crowd
cheering and Ted's voice recounting the climax of a football story he had told
Bobby earlier in the film.
Hicks and Goldman overreach, but they make up for it every time Bobby and Ted
interact. These scenes are unassumingly tender, enhanced by Hopkins' incomparable
ability to communicate the emotions of uncommunicative characters. It's easy
to enjoy those scenes for their own sake and forget the rest of the movie, which
is a classic example of the clichéd sentimental material Big Hollywood Studios
churn out when they aim for touching drama. Clichéd material is not always a
terrible thing, though, especially when it deals with themes like lost innocence
at a time when we, as a country, keenly feel that loss. Hearts in Atlantis
can be a reassuring trip to the theater. It is ultimately insubstantial, but
it is a feel-good movie nonetheless. Maybe that hits the spot.
Review
© September 2001 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.
Images © 2001 Warner Bros.
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