Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 135
Fresh: 67 | Rotten: 68
Hearts in Atlantis is well-acted and beautiful to look at, but the movie is nothing more than a mood piece.
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 19
Hearts in Atlantis is well-acted and beautiful to look at, but the movie is nothing more than a mood piece.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 23,066
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Movie Info
One of the short stories in a best-selling collection by author Stephen King becomes this mystery adapted for director Scott Hicks by screenwriter William Goldman, who previously transformed a King story into a box-office hit (Misery, 1990). In the summer of 1960, young Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) is sharing adventures with his best friends Carol (Mika Boorem) and Sully (Will Rothhaar) when an enigmatic lodger named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) rents a room in his family's boarding house.
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Cast
-
Anthony Hopkins
Ted Brautigan -
Anton Yelchin
Bobby Garfield -
Hope Davis
Liz Garfield -
Mika Boorem
Carol Gerber -
David Morse
Adult Bobby Garfield -
Alan Tudyk
Monte Man -
Tom Bower
Len Files -
Celia Weston
Alana Files -
Adam Le Fevre
Donald Biderman -
Will Rothhaar
Sully-John -
Timothy Reifsnyder
Harry Doolin -
Deirdre O'Connell
Mrs. Gerber -
Terry Beaver
Mr. Oliver -
Joe T. Blakenship
Richie O'Rourke -
Brett Fleisher
Willie Shearman -
Joel F. Haberli
Sully's Dad -
Evan Moses
Sully's Little Brother -
Joshua Billings
Cabbie -
Valerie Karasek
Sully's Widow -
Graham Bardsley
Minister -
Keith H. Beyer
Soldier at Funeral -
Robert V. Maine
Soldier at Funeral -
Sean Edwards
Soldier at Funeral -
Mickey Leon McBride
Soldier at Funeral -
Wes Johnson
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All Critics (154) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (70) | DVD (21)
Hicks ... coats the film in a bogus idyllic mist that substitutes cheap sentiment for blunt truth.
Top CriticThe unblinking sympathy for kids struggling with evil and with the strange frequencies of prepubescent passion can, if your defenses are down, lay you out.
Hicks's film is magical, but its magic comes not from the inexplicable phenomena we most commonly associate with King, but from the charms of childhood.
A precious respite from the postmodern era and all that it entails.
Much of Hearts feels a little empty, a little unmotivated.
Unabashedly sentimental, it's meant to touch our hearts in profound and important ways, but misses the mark by drawing too deeply from a pool of schmaltz.
Above average coming of age story.
A movie that says we might as well pack it in as soon as we turn 18 is more bitter than bittersweet.
What happened to the prodigious vitality of Scott Hicks (Shine): His third feature sugffers from the same stifling artistic treatment that his second did, and this one is based on stories by Stephen King!
Hicks' film is a beautiful trifle, a neat trick of light and sound to coax empathy
If good cinematographers are 'panning for gold' with their camera lens, Sobocinski has put his pan in the river and come back with a fortune.
Hearts in Atlantis is a leap of faith with nothing on the other side.
The film has a lot of nice little touches going for it, and while there are the obligatory moments of heartstring plucking underscored by the stir of violins, it never really overdoes things. The only problem is, it's just been so done already.
You'll still come away from Hearts in Atlantis wanting to read the book, but had Hicks and Goldman got it right, you would've run straight from the cinema to buy it.
While this film has the potential to be either a heartwarming coming-of-age story or a tense psychological thriller, it doesn't really achieve either goal.
Hopkins continues to turn in one lackluster performance after another.
This movie invokes a sense of nostalgia and a yearning for those childhood friends who, as we grow older, may be forgotten but will never be replaced.
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