| Bobby
Garfield (Yelchin) is a lonely boy living with his widowed mother
Liz (Davis) who spends the housekeeping money on frocks rather than
a bike for his 11th birthday. Cue the arrival of 'stranger in town'
Ted Brautigan (Hopkins), who asks the boy to read the papers to him
for pocket money.
Bobby
discovers that the avuncular man not only has a teacher's passion
for books that rubs off on his 'pupil', but also a sixth sense for
which he's being chased by FBI bogeymen, hoping to use his psychic
skills in the war against communism.
The
conflict between mother and son is made worse by Brautigan's arrival,
but this potentially poignant element is resolved with a wave of
the film makers' wand. Hopkins' enigmatic character is too mysterious,
and subplots (involving Bobby's adolescent crush and the defeat
of the school bully) are undeveloped.
The
film has glimpses of charm, but it's so glossy that it feels over-dressed.
As Hopkins' fairy godfather fails to impart believable pearls of
wisdom to Bobby, the movie ends without the possibility of our filling
in the gaps.
"Hearts
in Atlantis" is in UK cinemas on Friday 8th March 2002.
Reviewed
by Francesca
Franklyn , BBC Films
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