Review of Hearts in Atlantis (2001) by Michael Y — 10 Jul 2011

This has to be Stephen King's most pointless coming of age story yet. Hearts in Atlantis is a mix between a touching drama and psychological thriller, but fails to be either.

Bobby Garfield lives a simply with his mother who has sex with her boss. One day a boarder, Ted, lives with Bobby and his mother. Through a series of events with Ted, his sweetheart friend, Carol and a bully, Bobby grows up and learn about life and people. I really wanted to like this movie, but if you could think of every coming of age story you've seen, together they make up Hearts in Atlantis. And it's very clear that Stephen King uses story elements he already used in his previous books. Coming of age, childhood romance, fighting a bully, trusting a mysterious adult, a touch of the supernatural, the Baby-Boomer generation in the '50s, it has all been done before and frankly we don't need to see it again, especially when it doesn't connect to its audience like his other stories. Although Anthony Hopkins is entertaining as always, it just isn't enough.

I also would have liked this movie a bit better if it also didn't look like a lot of previous coming of age stories. Its '50s setting looks great. Everything is there, the fashion and retoness, little bits of history mixed in, and a really good soundtrack to boot. But where Hearts in Atlantis fails is in its pacing. This movie is pretty slow. All moody but never becomes emotional, and part mysterious and thrilling without catching the audience's attention. The cinematography looks good enough. It's looks great, but like I said, it looks like so many other movies already. There is very little creativity or risks taken to make this movie interesting.

Coming of age stories are hard to do because it's hard to touch on the realistic matter of it all. But we know Stephen King has made some great ones already. IT, The Body (a.k.a. Stand by Me) but though he tries to add a little mystery and the supernatural, Hearts in Atlantis is one coming of age story too many. And the filmmaking of its adaptation doesn't help this movie either.