A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Hearts in Atlantis

Theatrical release: 2001

Details:

Anthony Hopkins (Ted Brautigan)

Anton Yelchin (Bobby Garfield)

Hope Davis (Liz Garfield)

Mika Boorem (Carol Gerber / Molly)

David Morse (adult Bobby Garfield)

Director: Scott Hicks

Novel: Stephen King

Screenplay: William Goldman

Score: +

The Review: Summer; the 1950's; a widowed mother (Davis) and her 11-year old young son (Yelchin) are living on the slightly dingy side of town; his girlfriend and playmate (Boorem) is just across the street. Then a stranger (Hopkins) moves upstairs, into the third-floor flat. Hearts in Atlantis is rich in the nostalgia of the times (a hit with baby boomers?), and in the nostalgia of one's youth, growing up and coming of age, with a typical King twist. Brautigan has a mysterious past he tends to sidestep and some interesting abilities he keeps hidden -- but he is open to Bobby, and they become close friends, with Brautigan almost becoming a father substitute. As several increasingly strange events unfold, Bobby accepts them almost as matter of fact: the transcendent made immanent, awe and wonder merging into the everyday ordinary.

Although the original novel by Stephen King focuses on the 1960's (with a cute tag line: "The Sixties really happened"), the movie focuses on the 1950's, both in flavor and in content -- Nixon as vice-president, Red-baiting, the Cold War, and the ascendance of the FBI. Perhaps this is due to the deft hand of Goldman as screenwriter and translator of the novel to the silver screen, perhaps due to focusing only on the first story in the novel.

The two children are wonderfully cast and do a marvelous job: Carol (Boorem) is gorgeous and vital and intense and endearing; Bobby (Yelchin) wears his heart on his sleeve with almost no ability to dissemble, and clearly and simply shows the emotional range that a pre-teen is wont to exhibit. Davis as the mother makes up for this, a liar and a curmudgeon at 30, physically attractive but not at all likeable as a person. Hopkins is very good: alternately earnest, humorous, engaging, scary, odd, down-to-earth: almost makes you wish you took in boarders when you were young.

(6-Jul-02)

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