Rating- * * * * (4/5)
On my first viewing, I did not think very highly of this film. It seemed to ramble on and get lost in its own narrative, forgetting to explain to the audience why any of the events in the story were important. Then, on my second viewing I realized that it is not the movie’s job to explain it to us; it’s our job to search for the meaning and the symbolism. It has been far too long since I’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. Perhaps I, like many other viewers, got caught up in the simplicity of the story, thinking that somewhere along the line a greater purpose to all the events would be revealed. What I didn’t realize was that sometimes, the simple concept of growing up can be more important than any vast, global message. Hearts In Atlantis is based on the Stephen King novel about a young boy named Billy and the last summer of his childhood in the late ‘50s. Billy’s father died when Billy was five, so he was raised by his mother, who is a workaholic and thinks of herself far more often than Billy. They don’t have much money, a fact that Billy’s mother blames on her late husband who she claims was a compulsive gambler, but she still seems to find enough to buy a new dress every week. Since home isn’t so nice, Billy spends most of his time with his two best friends, Sully and Carol, who are your typical childhood friend characters. One fateful day, Billy’s mother decides that they need some extra money so they take in a tenant, a mysterious man named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins). Billy takes to Ted quite quickly and the two have a very interesting relationship; Ted talks to Billy not as a child but as an equal, and their conversations are not as instructional as a mentor/student relationship, but more mutual. It becomes apparent early on that Ted has some kind of psychic abilities; the specifics are never made clear, but this is not a sci-fi movie, it’s a movie about the characters. The psychic aspect of Ted serves only as another plot element and is not meant to be viewed as supernatural, just unusual and remarkable. Ted can see events before they happen and read the minds of others, and because of this gift he is on the run from FBI agents attempting to use his powers against the Soviets. Ted asks Billy to keep an eye out for the so-called “Low Men” and pays him a dollar a day to read him the paper. Billy happily obliges and the two grow to be very close friends. As the summer goes on, Billy eventually gets his first kiss from Carol, as prophesied by Ted as “the one against which all others for the rest of your life will be judged.” Billy also learns that his father was not really a compulsive gambler or a deadbeat, but a very honorable man who usually walked away from the gambling table with more than he came with. This movie takes a very honest, heartfelt look at growing up and the way our eyes are finally opened at that moment of impending maturity. There is a happy yet sad and nostalgic tone pervading throughout the film that feels very much like a reflection on one’s childhood and the film does a great job of creating an atmosphere that most of us can associate with childhood. The entire film is confined to the area surrounding the street that Billy lives on, just as in childhood when your entire world is about three miles wide. The symbolism of the Low Men is one that I did not catch at first, but as I watched the film again I realized that the men trying to exploit Ted were symbolic of the adult world; they find the ones who are exceptional and non-conforming and either exploit or destroy them. The only ones who make it are those who stay away from that world all together; those who cherish every second of their lives and never lose sight of what is important. There are a lot of great ideas in this story, but a lot of them run together and can get lost in the mix. I really enjoyed the story from a narrative standpoint and it plays like a modern fable, much in the way Stephen King’s other recent films have (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile). The film works on a much deeper level than is immediately evident but it also works on the surface level as a great, coming-of-age narrative. All around, this is a good movie for analysis and human emotions but it is also just a good story and an entertaining movie that is good for a trip down memory lane or a good cry.