Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Theatrical Release: Sep 28, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $23,604,382
Synopsis: "Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living in someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been; then we grow up and our hearts break into two." --Ted Brautigan For middle-aged photographer Bobby Garfield (DAVID MORSE), the past comes... "Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living in someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been; then we grow up and our hearts break into two." --Ted Brautigan For middle-aged photographer Bobby Garfield (DAVID MORSE), the past comes kicking the door down one day when the death of a childhood friend beckons him back to the town of his upbringing, and the memory of his 11th summer in 1960. It's a summer of friendship shared with his closest pals, Carol (MIKA BOOREM) and Sully (WILL ROTHHAAR), and marked by the arrival of a new lodger, Ted Brautigan (ANTHONY HOPKINS) in the upstairs apartment of the boarding house where Bobby lives with his self-obsessed mother, Liz (HOPE DAVIS). Bobby's memory of his long-dead father is clouded by his mother's bitterness, but Ted fills the gap, offering him adult friendship and attention, and helping to open the boy's eyes to a bigger world. But Ted brings with him too a haunted past, and strange powers which both puzzle and alarm Bobby. When he offers Bobby a job, it's more than simply reading the paper to save the old man's failing eyes. Ted enlists the boy to help him avoid a powerful danger that's pursuing him. As the last summer of Bobby's childhood draws to a close, Ted gives him a new understanding of his father, and the possibilities of life and love, before events overtake them all. Ted's pursuers close in, forcing Bobby to find depths of courage and forgiveness he never imagined. And for the adult Bobby, revisiting his childhood home and the memories of a summer long gone, a chance encounter completes the circle of his journey back in time. -- © Warner Bros. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, David Morse, Mika Boorem
DVD Info
Release:
Feb 12, 2002
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Snap Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
- Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
- Audio Commentary - 1. Scott Hicks - Director
- Interview - 1. Scott Hicks - Director 2. Anthony Hopkins - Star
- Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Galleries:
- Stills Gallery
- Filmographies
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
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.
Related Forums
by: ShyamalanFan 4/4/02


Top Critic


