Film Review: Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Stephen King is the most successful of all American writers in past half of century, at least in terms of sheer number of his works being adapted to screen. Such quantity was bound to result with at least some high quality, with some of those works being significantly better than others. It also resulted in some of those works being unjustly obscure, like in the case of Hearts in Atlantis, 2001 film directed by Scott Hicks.
The film is based on the King’s eponymous 1999 short story collection. The plot begins in present day when middle-aged Robert “Bobby” Garfield (played by David Morse) comes to his home town in order to attend funeral of a childhood friend John “Sully” Sullivan . The trip make him reminisce about times when he was 11-year old boy (played by Anton Yelchin) living in seemingly idyllic world together with Sully (played by Will Rothaar) and female friend Carol Gerber (played by Mika Boreem). Things are, however, hardly idyllic for his single mother Liz (played by Hope Davis) who needs money she can’t make with her secretary job. So she tries to make ends meet by renting room to mysterious elderly gentleman named Ted Brautigan (played by Anthony Hopkins). Brautigan has problems with sight so he pays Bobby to read him newspapers and two of them gradually become friends. Brautigan also asks for additional favour – he is to watch out for even mysterious strangers that might come and take him away. Bobby gradually realises that this might have something to do with Brautigan’s apparent abilities to read minds and predict future. Before solving the mystery, Bobby would have to face some unpleasant facts of life.
King’s works are usually associated with horror, fantasy and science fiction genres and his story collection nominally belonging to it, sharing some characters and motives from his Dark Tower cycles. Screenplay by famed script doctor William Goldman, on the other hand, made speculative fiction content look almost like an afterthought and Hearts in Atlantis resemble more generic coming-of-age story that tries to rely on Boomer nostalgia, very much like Stand By Me. Despite having seemingly more prosaic content, the film is quite interesting. Important reason for that is skilful direction by Austrian film maker Scott Hicks, whose previous works like Shine and Snow Falling on Cedars showed knack for period pieces. Hicks has great feel for King’s favourite milieu of New England small towns and he correctly assumed that the viewers will be better served by having strange story of Brautigan serving as mere backdrop for telling some universal truths and showing how nostalgia makes past look better than it really was.
Film’s style matches the general theme. Piotr Sobocinksi, Polish cinematographer famous for his collaboration with Krzyszof Kieszlowski and who died during the actual production, provided sharp contrast between cold colours that dominate scenes in present and warm colours that dominate depiction of early 1960s. Music is also well-chosen, with Platters and their songs bringing audience into seemingly simpler, better world without Vietnam, Watergate, drugs, race riots, AIDS and other evils that would plague Baby Boom generation. Hicks, however, very cleverly shows such vision to be an illusion and that some rather dark secrets can be found in Garfield’s home as well as “problematic” neighbourhoods of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Hearts in Atlantis benefits a lot from inspired casting. Anthony Hopkins, when served a good script, can turn even the most banal character into masterpiece. Ted Brautigan, a quite elderly man, seems light years away from Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, but Hopkins’ performance at times look even more impressive than in that iconic role. Hopkins is well-matched with Hope Davis in the role of Bobby’s morally ambiguous mother. But the greatest revelation is 12-year old Anton Yelchin in one of his early roles, especially in the scenes when he is accompanied by his older and more famous namesake.
Hearts in Atlantis could have been much better if Hicks and producers haven’t underestimated viewers’ intelligence and added number of scenes in post-production in order to explain who Ted Brautigan and people looking for him were. This not only sucked out the air of mystery from King’s tale, but also made it slightly less convincing. However, even in this imperfect state, Heart in Atlantis represents one of the rare examples of Stephen King’s adaptations done right.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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