Release Date:
Friday, September 28, 2001
As if no one has noticed by now, a movie based on a Stephen King novel that doesnt feature killer trucks, evil clowns, or the undead is generally a rehashed tale of lost innocence set to 50s music. Hearts in Atlantis, besides having one of the worst titles possible, is Stand By Me if the kids found a live psychic instead of a dead body.
When the mysterious Ted (Anthony Hopkins) moves in upstairs, a young boy (Anton Yelchin) becomes fascinated by his strange habitsa tendency to quote literature and mumble strange premonitionsand soon befriends him. This leads him on a voyage of discovery that teaches him well that he really likes a girl that he already seems to really like; that bullies are merely angry closeted homosexuals; and that his mom, who he already knows is a self-centered prick, really is a self-centered prick. Add to this his friend Sully, who by all accounts has to be the most extraneous character ever committed to film. (Can someone please explain why he was included at all, other than to look exactly like River Phoenix from Stand By Me? Any clue at all?) Hearts in Atlantis is not terrible, just bland and lifeless. If they had thrown in at least one psychotic ax murderer, it might have been saved.
When the mysterious Ted (Anthony Hopkins) moves in upstairs, a young boy (Anton Yelchin) becomes fascinated by his strange habitsa tendency to quote literature and mumble strange premonitionsand soon befriends him. This leads him on a voyage of discovery that teaches him well that he really likes a girl that he already seems to really like; that bullies are merely angry closeted homosexuals; and that his mom, who he already knows is a self-centered prick, really is a self-centered prick. Add to this his friend Sully, who by all accounts has to be the most extraneous character ever committed to film. (Can someone please explain why he was included at all, other than to look exactly like River Phoenix from Stand By Me? Any clue at all?) Hearts in Atlantis is not terrible, just bland and lifeless. If they had thrown in at least one psychotic ax murderer, it might have been saved.