With his last two films – Shine and Snow Falling on Cedars – Australian director Scott Hicks has proven his cinematic flashbacks to be some of the best out there, and his latest, Hearts in Atlantis, is no different.  Its structure – beginning and ending in present day with one long flashback in the middle – is similar to The Green Mile, which is a bit ironic considering both were based on Stephen King books.  The parallels don't end there, either.  Atlantis was adapted by William Goldman, who had previously penned the big-screen version of Misery and is in the process of working on the script for King's Dreamcatcher.  Even the film's content is a bit reminiscent of Mile.  In fact, it's the perfect blend of the feel-good '60s nostalgia of Stand By Me (also by King) and mystical power hokum of Mile.

King's Atlantis is a book comprised of five related short stories, but the main focus here is on the first (and longest) tale, called Low Men in Yellow Coats (the film's title comes from the second chapter).  It's set in 1960 Harwich, Connecticut, where 11-year-old Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) lives in a boarding house run by his cold, self-centered mother Elizabeth (Hope Davis, Joe Gould's Secret), who seems to care more about her wardrobe than her son.  Bobby spends his time with his two closest friends, John Sullivan (Will Rothhaar) and tomboy Carol Gerber (Mika Boorem), who become something like the Kevin, Paul and Winnie of Harwich.

When a new tenant moves into the vacant room, the fatherless Bobby finds a male role model in Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal), a mysterious stranger who is vague enough about his past to make Bobby's mom suspicious enough to at least momentarily turn her head away from the mirror.  Ted teaches his young neighbor about the wonders of literature (after his cheapskate mother gives him a library card for his birthday), dispenses prophetic words of wisdom and even pays Bobby one dollar a week to read him the local newspaper and keep his eyes peeled for the Low Men, a group of people chasing Ted to exploit his special powers.  I won't go into what these powers are, but they're considerably toned down from the book (and don't involve black stuff flying out of Ted's mouth, a la Mile). 

Atlantis' present-day setting which bookends the film is based on the novel's final chapter, titled Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, and features David Morse (in yet another connection to The Green Mile) as a married, middle-aged Bobby who learns of the death of both of his childhood friends and returns to the dilapidated boarding house in which he spent his formative years.

Atlantis is nowhere near as flashy as Hicks' Cedars, which is disappointing but understandable considering the switch from the completely amazing Robert Richardson to the occasionally amazing Piotr Sobocinski, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer behind Krzysztof Kieslowski's Red.  The acting is solid from everyone, including Hopkins, who never once makes you think of Dr. Lecter. Most impressive are youngsters Yelchin and Boorem, who both had tiny parts in Along Came a Spider.

While I didn't really have much of a problem with Goldman's screenplay, I do need to point out at least one inconsistency.  Goldman, for those of you who don't read Premiere, writes what seems like an annual criticism of everybody else's films, carefully explaining why they all suck, make no sense and insult their audiences, while somehow failing to mention the crap that he's penned (like The General's Daughter).  It's mean-spirited but fun to read, mostly on account of nobody else in Hollywood having the balls to say anything remotely negative about anybody else in the business (including Michael Jackson, O.J. and Robert Blake).  In Atlantis, which is supposed to be told through the eyes of young Bobby, one would assume he would have to be in each scene in order to have the memory to which to flash back. Well, he's not, and it doesn't make sense.

1:41 -

for violence and thematic elements