In a not very happening town, on a not very happening
street, lives an eleven year old boy called Bobby Garfield. Bobby-o wants a
bicycle that his single mother can’t afford. But every kid is hasty about
becoming a grown up and every grown up is understanding. So Bobby-O tries his
best. His mother is cynical, therefore never happy. And Bobby has to make do
with an adult library card as a birthday gift. The relationship as you must
have guessed by now is going downhill. The approaching of teenage makes things
worse. Enter, an old man, who takes the word “strange” as a compliment. Mr. Ted
is their new neighbor and also the most enigmatic personality Bobby-O has ever
met.
No I have not revealed anything. It would take more than
that to reveal the thick plot of Hearts in Atlantis, a film that almost
tricks you into thinking that it doesn’t have any plot to it.
The film has enormous names to boast of. Anthony Hopkins
plays a major character and the movie itself is based on Stephen King’s
collection of novella of the same name. Had I revealed these trump cards
before, you wouldn’t even have cared to read the review any further. But that
is where we miss the point, don’t we? Does a film become great just because of
the names associated to it? Or does it become great because those great people
had some belief in the story? Something clicked in Stephen King’s mind when he
wrote those stories. Something clicked in Hopkins’s mind when he was presented
with the idea. Now there’s a reason to watch a movie.
A mention of Stephen King’s name raises a question- is it a horror movie? Well that depends on your interpretation of the word ‘horror’. Is it all about seeing the ghost beneath the bed? Or is it about thinking of the ghost beneath the bed? The latter one is the kind of horror that King specializes in. The concept of horror in this movie is a little more profound. The fear of losing to time, the fear of realizing that our heroes are human, that our parents make mistakes too and that nothing is permanent. Not even our home. It may never be the place you dream of going back to.
Anthony Hopkins gets into the skin of Mr. Ted and becomes a
mystery to us, right from the moment he pops up as the new neighbor. His eyes
tell a different story in every movie. This time they are hiding something,
something terribly painful and horrific. The movie then invites you inside,
makes you feel welcome, hands you a hot cup of evening beverage and settles
down to tell a story that might not be very new, but engaging and moving
nevertheless. Important relationships are explored here. Painful realizations,
reinforced.
To dump this movie into a particular genre would be unjust.
It is a piece of storytelling you might want to indulge in when you are alone,
on a rainy Sunday evening. Your state of mind just might give you a new
comprehension.
Hearts in Atlantis, just like Kubrick’s The Shining,
focuses more on the stuff that is not supernatural. It understands King’s
writing and creates memorable images from the most trivial of instances. Isn’t
that how memories are made in the first place?
It is not a great movie, it’s far from it. But there’s
nothing wrong with it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
My Rating: «««««
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