Hearts in Atlantis

A film adapted from Stephen King, set at the start of the 1960s. Bobby is eleven. His father is dead, he lives with his mother and she pays him little attention. An old man called Ted moves into the upstairs room. Ted has him read aloud, talks to him, and gives him a job in return: report anything strange in the street. Ted is running from someone. He does not say who, and the film does not explain; the pursuers are known only through the signs left behind. The narrative is essentially a summer of childhood: a first love, a fight with the bigger boys in town, and a first real friendship with an adult. The fantastical element stays in the background. The source is two sections of King's book of the same name; the adaptation mainly uses the first. Anthony Hopkins plays Ted and Anton Yelchin plays Bobby, in his first major role. William Goldman wrote the screenplay. Scott Hicks directed. Piotr Sobociński is the cinematographer; the film's warm colour scheme is his work and this is among his last films. A quiet choice for anyone who likes stories of childhood and nostalgic drama. For a viewer expecting horror or fantasy, the film barely uses that strain in King at all.