HEARTS IN ATLANTIS (FILM)

'''Hearts in Atlantis''' is a 2001 film directed by Scott Hicks. It is loosely adapted from Stephen King's novella "Low Men in Yellow Coats", from his story collection ''Hearts in Atlantis''. Ironically, the title "Hearts in Atlantis" refers to a completely different story with none of the characters or plot elements of the film.

★ Tagline: ''What if one of life's great mysteries moved in upstairs?''

Contents

Plot summary

Cast

Reaction

Differences from the source material

External links

Plot summary

''Hearts in Atlantis'' revolves around Robert "Bobby" Garfield, a middle-aged man recollecting his past, namely the experiences he had during the summer when he was eleven years old. During that time, he and his two friends Carol Gerber and John "Sully" Sullivan encountered many things together, the most mysterious of which was an elderly drifter named Ted Brautigan who would soon come to be a boarder under the watchful eye of Bobby's self-centered mother, Liz Garfield.
In the film, the eleven-year-old Robert lives with his single mother who takes in Brautigan as a boarder. Ted takes the lonely Robert under his wing, while his mother is busy with her job and entertains her boss as a way of paying off debt supposedly left by Bobby's late Father. The two form a father-son bond, and it slowly becomes clear that Ted has some psychic powers that rub off on the young boy. These same powers are the reason that Brautigan has come to this sleepy town, he has escaped the grasp of the government which was "recruiting" psychics to combat Communism.
Robert, Carol and John have frequent conflicts with the local town bully, whom Ted is able to scare away by looking into his mind and finding out that his violence is used to cover up the fact that he is secretly gay and a cross-dresser. However, at one point the bully hurts Carol, and when Ted tries to relocate her arm, Robert's mom (Liz) arrives and mistakenly believes that Ted is a child molester. She is confronted by Ted who forces her to see the truth of what she is doing with her boss and how it is affecting her relationship with her son, providing another reason that Ted must leave. That and the government is closing in on him.
Ted is eventually taken away by the authorities with the help of a tip from Bobby's ignorant mother, while Bobby is trying to get Ted's winnings from a bar under surveillance. As some form of closure Ted yells to Bobby while he is being driven away that, he wouldn't have missed a moment. And later Bobby mirrors the same feelings.

Cast

★ Anthony Hopkins – Ted Brautigan

★ Anton Yelchin – Robert 'Bobby' Garfield

★ Hope Davis – Elizabeth 'Liz' Garfield

★ Mika Boorem – Carol Gerber

★ David Morse – Adult Bobby Garfield

★ Timothy Reifsnyder – Harry Doolin

Reaction

The movie was a box-office failure, grossing $23.6 million. VHS and DVD sales totaled approximately $10 million, allowing the film to narrowly break even. Anton Yelchin did receive positive recognition and won a Young Artist Award for his performance.

Differences from the source material

The story that it was based on had deep ties into King's epic ''The Dark Tower''. In the original novella, the 'low men' were in fact Can-toi, agents of the Crimson King. Ted Brautigan was a 'breaker', a psychic whose abilities made him able to (unwillingly, of course) to 'break' down the beams surrounding the Dark Tower, the linchpin of all existence. Although he is taken away at the end, like the film, it is later implied that he escapes as Bobby later receives rose petals in the mail. (The Dark Tower is in the middle of a large field of roses).
Carol does not die in the story as well. She is believed to have perished in a fire, but in the end, she meets up with Bobby but under a different name.

External links

★ Official site

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