Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I've been dying to see this for a while now. Bill Goldman has told me that this is his favorite piece of writing since THE PRINCESS BRIDE, and that it's one of the things he's proudest of in his career. High praise, indeed, and as they test screened it and Scott Hicks kept fine-tuning his cut of the film, Goldman said it just kept getting better. It's playing the Toronto Film Festival this coming week, and Capone managed to lay eyes on it already. Sounds like he was impressed, too. Check it out...
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here. One day after I saw the terrifyingly bad THE MUSKETEER, I went back to the same theatre on Michigan Avenue. I held my breath as I walked in, fearing that the stench from the previous night might still be lingering. I know you liked it, but it's just wrong on so many levels. But I'm not here to talk about big hats with feathers and fencing; I'm here to talk about quality filmmaking. Here's my HEARTS IN ATLANTIS review…
Anyone who still thinks of Stephen King as a horror writer needs to have their head examined (or at least they need to get out more). In fact lately, the filmed version of his novels/stories have been his decidedly non-horror tales (which is not to say they don’t have a touch of the supernatural in them, but there aren’t any vampires). Films like STAND BY ME, MISERY, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, APT PUPIL, and most recently THE GREEN MILE show, in many cases, that the true monsters of the earth are people. When I saw George Romero speak here in Chicago last year, he mentioned he was adapting THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, which is about as far from horror as he could go while still staying scary. King’s latest movie adaptation is HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, a collection of five related short stories that King used to comment on his recollections of becoming an adult in the 1960s. HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, the movie, is a retelling of the first of these stories, “Low Men in Yellow Coats.”
The story is told mostly in flashback by a grown-up Bobby Garfield (David Morse), who we meet as he learns of the death of his childhood friend Sully. Attending Sully’s funeral gives Bobby the chance to revisit his old home town and the house he grew up in. He remembers a young Bobby Garfield (the remarkable Anton Yelchin) at age 11, growing up in the 1950s with his self-centered mother, Elizabeth (Hope Davis in one of her rare unlikeable roles), in small town Maine. Elizabeth is fixated on money. She tells Bobby that his now dead father didn’t leave them a penny and that she’s too poor to even buy him a birthday present (she gets him a “grown-up” library card). But Bobby notices that she doesn’t seem to have problems affording several beautiful new dresses for herself. On the day of Bobby’s birthday, a new tenant moves into the top floor of their two-story apartment house. He is Ted Brautigan (an absolutely definite Oscar-nominated performance by Anthony Hopkins). Ted is sweet, caring, and mysterious, and Bobby immediately recognizes that this aged man may be his only male role model for quite some time.
Although it’s clear early on that Bobby and Ted will become fast friends, it’s not because Bobby doesn’t have any other friends. His two closest are the previously mentioned Sully (played by Will Rothhaar, who bares a striking resemblance here to River Phoenix in STAND BY ME) and Carol (Mika Boorem), whom Bobby is clearly in love with even at his age. The two even share their first kiss together, and Ted predicts to Bobby that it will be “the kiss that all other are judged by.”
Ted keeps much of his past life a secret, but as they get to know each other he starts asking Bobby to keep an eye out for “Missing Pet” signs on telephone poles and message boards. He says these signs are code and mark the arrival of “low men” who are looking for him. Low men can be identified by their dark clothes (not yellow coats like the book, by who cares?) and flashy oversized cars. Ted also reveals to Bobby that he has the gift of ESP (shades of THE SHINING) and can see into the minds of most as well as accurately predict the immediate future. He’s even able to pass the gift on to others for brief periods by touching them. There’s a great scene of Bobby outsmarting a three-card monty dealer at a carnival without even looking at the cards.
Unlike King’s story, the low men in this script (penned by the legendary William Goldman, who is also working on a treatment of King’s most recent novel “The Dreamcatcher”) I believe are supposed to be government men. There’s a mention made in a newspaper article that Bobby reads to Ted of the FBI denying allegations that they are recruiting psychics to catch commie spies. In King’s original tale, the low men are beings serving the villain of his “Dark Tower” novels, and I wondered how Goldman would alter characters that no one outside of King’s literary universe would understand into the realm of this film. But he does so beautifully, and this change marks the only significant altering of the the original story. Director Scott Hicks (SHINE) treats his child and adult actors with equal dignity and has shaped a believable and moving coming-of-age film that does not shy away from some of the pain and torment of youth. The scene where Bobby realizes that his mother never really liked his father and probably doesn’t like him either is tough to watch. There’s a tremendous amount of humor in this movie also, and the conversations between Hopkins and Yelchin are priceless and meaningful. There’s a whole lot of talking in this movie, but it’s all intelligent and moving. The whole film is for that matter. HEARTS IN ATLANTIS may end up being one of may favorites of the year.
Capone
Or read my collected reviews at www.buffalospeedway.net; just click on Steve@theMovies.
