Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Directed by Scott Hicks
A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.
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What critics compared Hearts in Atlantis to
In fact, the novelist's non-horror short stories - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" ("The Shawshank Redemption") and "The Body" ("Stand By Me") - have usually fared better than adaptations of his long-form, horror-based works such as "Cujo" or "Pet Sematary."
Set in 1960 Connecticut, "Hearts in Atlantis" is just such a movie, lying somewhere between "Stand By Me" and "The Green Mile" in its heady atmosphere of wonder, mystery, and the rose-colored remembrances of childhood.
In fact, smack in it's middle, the film packs a hearty punch, bringing to mind the wonder and magic of childhood as so spiritedly stirred to life in one of King's earlier screen hits "Stand By Me."
Based on Stephen King stories from an anthology of the same name, Scott Hicks has cut and pasted them into a 60s rites of passage tale that means well, but cloying sentimentality and a slow pace keeps it in a different class to "Stand by Me", a similarly-themed King adaptation.
Hearts in Atlantis, an early bid in this year's Oscar race, tries vainly to capture the coming-of-age spirit that played so well with Liberty Heights and Stand By Me.
The words “Based on a novella by Stephen King” probably don’t inspire as much excitement as once they did, and with good reason: for every Misery, there’s a Dreamcatcher, a Hearts in Atlantis and a Tommyknockers.
Mika Boorem ("Hearts in Atlantis") is believable as little sister Susie, a link between Katey's liberal sensibilities and the in crowd Susie more naturally gravitates toward.
Sharing writing credit with Kasdan, veteran King adapter William Goldman ("Misery," "Hearts in Atlantis") has been able to transfer that compelling quality to the screen.
Screenwriter Goldman has adapted two other King novels -- Misery and Hearts in Atlantis -- and has come out ahead on both deals.
Just a couple of years ago, he tried to adapt "Hearts in Atlantis," as awful a film as you're likely to see.
Yes, Lawrence Kasdan , along with co-screenwriter William Goldman (who's previously adapted King's works in "Misery" and "Hearts in Atlantis" while also writing "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and The "Princess Bride"), has decided to tackle King's novel, but the result belies the men's previous fabulous works.
That so many of King's works have been translated to the screen by Goldman (this is his third after Misery and Hearts in Atlantis ) speaks a great deal to Goldman's relative vestigiality post-'70s (and to his dangerous capacity for smug gruel)--and explains to a degree how Dreamcatcher made it to the screen riddled as it is with the same sort of self-references and insular nature.
Like its source material (the script was written by William Goldman, who also did Kingâs Hearts in Atlantis and Misery), the film is a sprawling mess that churns, Blob-like, in every direction.
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Director Scott Hicks ("Shine," "Snow Falling on Cedars," "Hearts in Atlantis," "No Reservations") uses the full bag of tricks.
In fact, that is exactly what happens, and it is one-half of the reason that The Lucky One sucks as a romantic drama, assuming that we can accuse the actors of being cumulatively everything that is wrong with the movie, while ignoring the cliché-spouting screenplay adapted by Will Fetters - whose last job at trying to get a dubious teenybopper to grow up into leading manhood was the R-Patz 9/11 hatchet job Remember Me - or the stiff, pacey direction by Scott Hicks, the manhandler of such leaden dramas as Snow Falling on Cedars and Hearts in Atlantis , or the snoozy landscape cinematography of Ala Kivilo, who renders the Lousiana woods in the same training-wheels sun-kissed aesthetic he employed in The Blind Side .
Or maybe not, considering Hicks’ post-“Shine” efforts include forgettable hokum like “Hearts in Atlantis” and “No Reservations.”
The Shawshank Redemption, Pet Sematary, Carrie, Lisey’s Story, Dolores Claiborne, Hearts in Atlantis, The Dark Tower.
(Even greater self-infliction, that production company recently signed screenwriter William Goldman-who handled King's aptly titled "Misery" for it-to script its seventh King adaptation, "Hearts in Atlantis.")
Anton Yelchin ("15 Minutes," "Along Came a Spider") is quite good as the young protagonist, with David Morse ("Proof of Life," "The Green Mile") being appropriately somber and reflective as that character at an adult age in the film's contemporary, bookend moments.
Set in 1960 Connecticut, "Hearts in Atlantis" is just such a movie, lying somewhere between "Stand By Me" and "The Green Mile" in its heady atmosphere of wonder, mystery, and the rose-colored remembrances of childhood.