Rating: 
Summary: Great!
Review: I previously read this book and it was great! Making a movie of it was a brilliant idea! Although they must have edited a lot of it because there was a lot of use of the "F" word (just in case any kids are reading) and a lot of sexual references. It's quite depressing though.(Just a word of advice, hehe.)
Rating: 
Summary: Not too bad if you didn't read the book.
Review: For some reason, when they translated this book into film, they felt the need to down play the "mystical" side of the story. (The same was done to "The Shining"). Unfortunately, they took what is arguably Stephen King's finest novel to date, and ripped the heart out of it. Sir Anthony Hopkins gave a fairly good performance of Ted Brautigan, but was dragged down by a weak screenplay. The choice of Anton Yelchin as young Bobby Garfield could not have been further off the mark. It was difficult to stand his whining for an hour and a half. Hope Davis as Liz Garfield turned in a fairly good performance, but in the original story line, she was much meaner and a whole lot easier to hate. The only real standout performance came from Mika Boorem as Carol Gerber. If this movie left you feeling like you were hanging out to dry, it's because there was a whole other half to it. Due to time constraints it would have been impossible to put the whole story onto film without making it a two parter. This is the only slack I will cut the director and screenwriter. Unfortunately, the best part of the novel was left out. If you saw this movie and weren't thrilled, I highly recommend reading the novel which was truly uplifting.
Rating:
Summary: SHADOW PLAY
Review: Having read the novel on which this film is based, I can congratulate Scott Hicks and screenwriter William Goldman for their faithfulness to the general feel of King's novel. The movie, however, is only composed of the first story in the novel, so those who haven't read the book don't know what fate awaits Bobby and Carol.
One of the main changes in the film regards the low men. In the book, they are much more enigmatic and mysterious. The movie doesn't fully explain who they are, but there are some indications that they are FBI men out to snare Ted Brautigan, whose psychic abilities are "requested" by J. Edgar Hoover. Anthony Hopkins, always the professional, has some very tender moments, but much of the time he appears to be "acting" rather than filling the role. However, again, his character's motivation is veiled and never fully explained, so Hopkins may not have felt he could do any more with it. Hope Davis as Bobby's mother does a good job, but she is so consistent in her tone that we never fully understand what she goes through and whether she loves Bobby or not. David Morse, who has worked in King material before (he was excellent in GREEN MILE), plays the adult Bobby, and even though he has few scenes, he is quite good in them. The true stars of this movie, however, are Anton Yelchin and Mika Boorem as young Bobby and Carol. Yelchin is so natural it's hard to believe he's acting; he doesn't try and say "Hey look I'm a kid and I'm a good actor." He just seems to inhabit Bobby's shoes, and does a remarkably good job. Boorem as Carol is likewise down to earth and believable in her role as the young "girlfriend" of Bobby. Their little love scene on the ferris wheel is as tender and realistic as any you'll see by mature adults. Hicks does well in directing the young actors, and the camera work is evocative and plaintive. However, at times it's like he's saying "Remember me..I got nominated for an Oscar for directing "Shine", so I have to be as artsy and esoteric as I can."
Stephen King's track record for good movie adaptations of his novels has been hit and miss. This one falls somewhere in the middle...the children rescue it and it leaves a somewhat bittersweet mark on your heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed but still good
Review: "Hearts in Atlantis" is based on a Stephen King novel, but don't expect "The Shining" here. Despite its supernatural shadows, this film is, at its core, about the friendship between a man and a young boy. A stranger, Ted Brautigan (played by Anthony Hopkins) arrives in a small town and takes a room in a boarding house where an emotionally-broken woman (Hope Davis) and her son Bobby (Anton Yelchin) live. Bobby, who is hungry for a father figure, finds companionship in Ted's quiet, wise manner as they read, and discuss, the daily newspaper. But Ted is a wanted man. He is being sought by the "low men," mysterious mind-readers who want Ted for their government project and who thus endanger the blossoming relationship between man and boy."Hearts in Atlantis" is beautifully filmed and edited, with shadows and visual flashes and an eeriness that creates an atmosphere lurking with uncertainty and danger. The scenes between Hopkins and Yelchin are taut and subtle. Actress Hope Davis as Bobby's selfish mother is less convincing. Despite this unevenness, I thoroughly enjoyed this mesmerizing movie. This is Hopkins's showcase, through and through, and he does not disappoint. The story is suspenseful, the underlying currents strong, and the acting competent at its worst. Only near the end does it get sentimental. Those who have read and loved King's novel might best steer clear, since I've been told by several people that this film disappoints in comparison. Still, I recommend "Hearts in Atlantis" for anyone in the mood for an dark and wise tale about a young boy growing up.
Rating:
Summary: A Pretty Good King Adaptation
Review: I had seen this movie a few years ago, the day it came out on DVD and then lost it. I remembered the movie, but nothing about it. Then I read Stephen Kings book and I wanted to see the movie again. Well, after another viewing, the film version has its highs and its lows. The first being the fact that the book was 5 novellas and the movie is based on the first one "Low Men in Yellow Coats" and the last one
"Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling" and they only took a single idea from the last one, that being the reason Bobby comes back to Conneticut. A high in my oppinion is that they didn't attempt to adapt the second, third, and fourth novellas (Hearts in Atlantis, Blind Willie, and Why We're In Vietnam). Another high would be Anthony Hopkins performance as Ted Brautigan. A low would be that the movie lacks the novellas emotion. This film isn't that sad, and the book is. The novella was in my oppinion some of Kings best writing, as well as some of his most emotional. The movie really isn't that emotional and also in the novella, Bobbys mother is portrayed as an evil woman. In the movie, even though she does commit an evil act, she suddenly reconciles with Bobby, while in the book Bobby hates her the rest of his life. Anyway, the movie is about Bobby Garfield (the sometimes talented, sometimes annoying Anton Yelchin). He lives in Harwich, Conneticut in an apartment building with his mother Liz (Hope Davis, "About Schmidt"). One day
a new tenant moves in, and the tenants name is Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins). Bobby and Ted hit it off right away, but Liz doesn't trust him. Ted offers Bobby a job, read the paper to him every day and look for the low men. A group of supernatural beings hunting Ted. In case you're interested in finding out what the low men are read the 6th book in the Dark Tower series: Song of Susannah by Stephen King. Overall, this isn't that bad of a film and it's a semi-well adaptation of a King novel. It's not half as bad as a lot of the adaptations. I think that it was good, except for some bits of dialouge that were kind of stupid and predictable. I recommend in addition to this, however: Secret Window. B.
Rating:
Summary: 11 is a difficult age that needs a door to life
Review: This film, with an aging Anthony Perkins, is adapted from the book of Stephen King that has the same title. The book is a great book about the growing process of a young teenager when confronted to a substitute of his dead father that can open his mind to life, to culture, to literature, to danger and to love. The film is by far too short to show all the details of this essential situation for any kid : the opening of a mind and a personality to the wide wild world. By being too short it looks like a sketch if not a caricature. The whole cultural dimension is lost, particularly the discovery of literature and the pleasure to read books. Actually no book is read in the film, and no book is discussed in the film. The danger that is chasing Ted Brautigam is not clearly shown and identified, though it is not identified in the book either, but it is described in many details. Here things go too fast, the mouse falls in the trap too quickly. We are and remain hungry after this meal. The mother, on the other hand, is quite clearly shown has a naive and selfish bigot. She spends most of her income on dresses and accuses her dead husband to have left her miserable and with many debts, which is quickly shown as false. But she is naive to the point of not seeing that her boss is inviting her to a « convention » over a week-end, because he wants a woman to be at her service during that time. She ends up raped, and she had not even thought of her boss's duplicity, in spite of previous situations that she had had to face. The film is maybe a little bit sketchy on that point. But this woman is a bigot at the same time and sees evil everywhere, particularly in this male stranger that arrives one day and rents the second floor apartment. And yet she is a bigot as long as she does not need the man to take care of her son during her « convention » weekend. And she does not seem to wonder too hard where the two thousand dollars come from on the night the neighbor goes away. She just takes the money, though she will, to compensate maybe for her lack of love, buy the dream bike her son had coveted all summer long. In other words this film could have been a lot better.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: Subtlely great
Review: Anthony Hopkins and David Morse (in a small role) are great in this movie, along with excellent support from the actors playing the children. Excellent direction from Hicks (the DVD features a very soothing commentary by him), and stunning cinematography - this really is a BEAUTIFUL film to watch, one that gently carresses your eyes. The ending is vastly different from the book, more bittersweet. A good, subtle movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Piece Of Work From Hopkins
Review: A very good job by one of the great ones.....Anthony Hopkins does a wonderful job as Ted Brautigan interacting with 11-year-old Bobby Garfield, played quite well by Anton Yelchin. The nostalgic narration of the people, places, and times where 3 childhood friends grew up is extremely well done. It's a good coming-of-age story with a regular series of moments when his selfish mother, played by Hope Davis, infuriates anyone who has ever experienced any kind of competent parenting.
There are lots of good moments in this one. Lots of reasons to take the time to enjoy it. And lots of places where you can easily engage in the lives of the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly slight
Review: After giving the world two wonderful films in "Shine" and "Snow Falling On Cedars", I suppose Scott Hicks has earned the right to make a bad one. The engaging supernatural premise of "Hearts in Atlantis" is left at the door as Hicks takes a lugubrious detour into memoir. The central problem here is the story. It made sense alongside the others in Stephen King's book, but here, deprived of its context and ultimate meaning, it just doesn't play. It looks, sounds and feels like a film that should have you crying, and gives you everything but a reason to. Hopkins still manages to be excellent as Ted Brautigan, Anton Yelchin is superb as the young Bobby, and Hicks does evoke the period extremely well. But in the end there's something missing at the heart of it all - a point. The film can't seem to decide if it's a coming-of-age drama or a supernatural thriller, and settles for being neither. So when Brautigan cries out at the climax, "I wouldn't have missed a minute of it, not for all the world..." the audience is left wondering what he's talking about. There's a lesson here in the adaptation of Stephen King's stories: if you're going to tone down the violence or the supernatural elements on which his stories hinge, you need to replace them with something else. Bryan Singer's "Apt Pupil" managed this balancing act extremely well, as did Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me". This one doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: SHADOW PLAY
Review: Having read the novel on which this film is based, I can congratulate Scott Hicks and screenwriter William Goldman for their faithfulness to the general feel of King's novel. The movie, however, is only composed of the first story in the novel, so those who haven't read the book don't know what fate awaits Bobby and Carol.
One of the main changes in the film regards the low men. In the book, they are much more enigmatic and mysterious. The movie doesn't fully explain who they are, but there are some indications that they are FBI men out to snare Ted Brautigan, whose psychic abilities are "requested" by J. Edgar Hoover. Anthony Hopkins, always the professional, has some very tender moments, but much of the time he appears to be "acting" rather than filling the role. However, again, his character's motivation is veiled and never fully explained, so Hopkins may not have felt he could do any more with it. Hope Davis as Bobby's mother does a good job, but she is so consistent in her tone that we never fully understand what she goes through and whether she loves Bobby or not. David Morse, who has worked in King material before (he was excellent in GREEN MILE), plays the adult Bobby, and even though he has few scenes, he is quite good in them. The true stars of this movie, however, are Anton Yelchin and Mika Boorem as young Bobby and Carol. Yelchin is so natural it's hard to believe he's acting; he doesn't try and say "Hey look I'm a kid and I'm a good actor." He just seems to inhabit Bobby's shoes, and does a remarkably good job. Boorem as Carol is likewise down to earth and believable in her role as the young "girlfriend" of Bobby. Their little love scene on the ferris wheel is as tender and realistic as any you'll see by mature adults. Hicks does well in directing the young actors, and the camera work is evocative and plaintive. However, at times it's like he's saying "Remember me..I got nominated for an Oscar for directing "Shine", so I have to be as artsy and esoteric as I can."
Stephen King's track record for good movie adaptations of his novels has been hit and miss. This one falls somewhere in the middle...the children rescue it and it leaves a somewhat bittersweet mark on your heart.
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