Hearts in Atlantis (film)

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Hearts in Atlantis

Directed by	Scott Hicks
Produced by	Kerry Heysen
Written by	Stephen King (book), William Goldman
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Anton Yelchin Hope Davis David Morse
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	7 September 2001
Running time	101 minutes
Language	English
Budget	~ US$31,000,000
IMDb profile

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 book Hearts in Atlantis.

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

1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reaction
4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 trying to find a new husband. The two form a father-son bond, and it slowly becomes clear that Ted has some psychic and telekinetic powers that rub off on the young boy and provoke the interest of clandestine government agents.

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, Carol is hurt and when Ted tries to revive her, Robert's mom (Liz) arrives and mistakenly believes that Ted is a child molester. She calls the authorities and chases him out of the house.

Ted is eventually taken away by the authorities, and Robert remarks that whatever powers he may have had, he doesn't have them any more.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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. The young actor Anton Yelchin did receive positive recognition and won a Young Artist Award for his performance.