Hearts in Atlantis
Short description
Hearts in Atlantis is a drama about Bobby Garfield, a man who returns to his Connecticut hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend and finds himself remembering the summer he was eleven. Back in 1960, Bobby lives with his widowed mother, who resents the burden he places on her own plans, and spends his days with his friends Carol and Sully. Their world changes with the arrival of Ted Brautigan, an older man who rents an upstairs room in the house and hires Bobby to read him the newspaper. The job turns out to include watching for strangers Ted believes are following him, and as the two grow close, Bobby comes to see Ted as the father figure he lacks, while discovering that the man possesses an unusual gift.
The film was directed by Scott Hicks, its screenplay written by William Goldman, and it was produced by Kerry Heysen. It followed Hicks's Shine and Snow Falling on Cedars and came before No Reservations. Anthony Hopkins plays Ted, Anton Yelchin plays the young Bobby, Hope Davis plays his mother Liz, Mika Boorem plays Carol, David Morse plays the grown Bobby, and Alan Tudyk appears as Monte Man. Made for a budget of 31 million dollars, it took in roughly the same amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.9 from around 43,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.8 from 646 votes, against a critics' rating of 6.3 from 136 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Ted Brotygan's monologue about the football player is taken from the novel Magic by William Goldman (the film's screenwriter).
- Jeremy Sumpter was initially considered for the role of Bobby Garfield, later gaining fame for the title role in P.J. Hogan's fairy tale "Peter Pan" (2003).
- The parked black car that can be seen in the film is a 1958 Packard Universal. Only 159 of these cars were made.
- At the beginning of the film, Ted Brautigan talks about frequently not returning books to the library as a child and that “if the police had gotten involved, I would have been the main criminal.” This is a reference to Stephen King’s novella “The Library Police” (from *Four Past Midnight*, 1990).
- The original novel *Hearts in Atlantis* has plot connections to the *Dark Tower* saga.
- Despite the film being titled "Hearts in Atlantis", it is based only on the first part of the original novel of the same name, which is called "Low Men in Yellow Coats". "Hearts in Atlantis" is the title of the part that follows "Low Men in Yellow Coats".
- Ted Brautigan also appears in Stephen King’s novel *The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower* (2004).
- After the film's release, Anthony Hopkins claimed that he decided to take on the role of Ted Brogan because of a feeling of "déjà vu": he remembered that one morning someone delivered a script to him for a film whose title the actor did not recall, but he clearly remembered the screenwriter's name written on the envelope next to the title – William Goldman.
- The film is dedicated to the memory of cinematographer Pyotr Sobochinsky (1958 – 2001), who passed away on March 26, 2001.
- In the film, in addition to Ted Brautigan, another one of these connections remains: when Ted Brautigan sets Carol’s dislocated shoulder, he says that “the pain rises up” and that to “catch the pain,” you need to bite down on a belt – the exact same words Roland says while trying to remove a bullet from Eddie Dean’s leg in the novel *The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah*.
- Castle Rock Entertainment is named after Castle Rock, Maine – the fictional town where many of Stephen King's characters live.
- This is the second film adapted from a Stephen King work by William Goldman: the first was the thriller "Misery" (1990), and the third was the science fiction horror drama "Dreamcatcher" (2003).
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