Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
Hearts in Atlantis
Metascore
55 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 30 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 30
  3. Negative: 2 out of 30
view
per page
  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    Inspiring without sinking into sentimentality or cliche, Hearts of Atlantis is intelligent, heartfelt and genuine, a rare story of childhood for adults.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Rarely does a movie make you feel so warm and so uneasy at the same time.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    80
    The heartfelt use of extrasensory events as metaphors for a child's grasp of adult mysteries has a poetry to it, and the unblinking sympathy for kids struggling with evil and with the strange frequencies of prepubescent passion can, if your defenses are down, lay you out.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    Assisted by a well-crafted script by the veteran William Goldman and a masterful performance by Anthony Hopkins, Hicks has turned two King short stories into a somber meditation on the dreams and frustrations of childhood and the ways the adult world makes its darker qualities known.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    80
    Yes, it's corny and reemerging cynics need not apply. But it is blissfully heartwarming.
  6. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    80
    As stirring as it is slight, as effective as it is familiar.
  7. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    80
    Where other King stories and hundreds of other movies simplistically exploit the archetype, this tale intricately relates the actions of its young evildoer to the more abstract forces bearing down on the adults.
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    Sometimes thrilling, sometimes suffocatingly tasteful adaptation of Stephen King's 1999 novel.
    All this critic's reviews
  9. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Hicks doesn't always keep the story clear and compelling, but Hopkins is in top form.
  10. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    75
    Don't underestimate the appeal of a heart-tugger that's this well mounted.
  11. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    A powerful and surehandedly crafted depth charge of a movie.
    All this critic's reviews
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    Too poky and contrived to be a good movie, but its lushly serene atmospherics, given current events, make it a pure slice of sentimental comfort food.
  13. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Barry Johnson
    67
    The mix of psychic thriller and childhood memory movies is smooth, maybe too smooth. Neither becomes truly gripping, despite fine acting by Hopkins, Yelchin and Boorem.
  14. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Desmond Ryan
    63
    A film with many redeeming qualities. Its heart is certainly in the right place, but its head makes some misjudgments.
  15. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    60
    The resulting film directed by Scott Hicks is afflicted by terminal nostalgic drift. You come out of the theater with nothing more specific than half-pleasant memories of baseball gloves, Ferris wheels and vintage automobiles. I've had naps that were more exciting.
  16. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    The few who saw the embalmed adaptation of "Snow Falling on Cedars" will recognize the same stifling approach brought to this more accessible material by director Scott Hicks.
  17. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    What's missing, really, is a point. Like "Snow Falling on Cedars," Hicks composes every shot in Hearts in Atlantis as if it were his last.
  18. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    Is it possible to have too much Anthony Hopkins? Believe it or not, the answer is yes. Hopkins' quiet power and perfectly formed vowels overwhelm the rickety, falsely sentimental Hearts in Atlantis.
  19. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    A fussy piece of schmaltz that makes you long for "Stand By Me," a vastly superior coming-of-age tale from King's pen.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    50
    Unabashedly sentimental, it's meant to touch our hearts in profound and important ways, but misses the mark by drawing too deeply from a pool of schmaltz.
  21. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    The kids provide all the vitality, but even they've been muffled by the director.
  22. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Hicks smothers the story in portentous images and the obligatory memory-inducing soundtrack. The effect is like peering at a photo through layers of shellac: evocative but remote.
  23. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    What a shame, though, that the movie isn't a livelier business.
  24. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    50
    Slightly soggy.
  25. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Kevin Park
    40
    The reason I hate this movie so much (besides the fact that it sucked) is that there was so much behind it and it still was a bland.
  26. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    40
    I had looked forward to seeing King's low men and their hideous yellow coats and monstrous high-finned automobiles, but what we've got here is less King than Goldman, and less fun to boot.
  27. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    For all the highfalutin dialogue and mysterioso goings-on, the only true mystery Hicks and Goldman conjure up is whether the mellifluously voiced outsider is dangling his new friend a little too closely on his knee.
  28. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    40
    The movie is pleasant enough, in its studied way, and Mr. Hopkins does as well as anyone could in the role of a wise man with vaguely supernatural powers. Still, it's awfully amorphous and pokey.
    All this critic's reviews
  29. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    38
    It's not hell, but limbo, junior high-school style.
  30. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    0
    Mush, delivered with a trembling, quasi-biblical solemnity, is what emanates from Anthony Hopkins most of the time in Hearts in Atlantis, a nostalgic fiasco so shameless it makes movies like "Simon Birch" and "Frequency" seem as austere as the work of Robert Bresson.
prev next
Page:
  • 1

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. JimM.
    1
    SHORT VERSION: Read the book; skip the film. LONG VERSION: I am a recently “revived” fan of Stephen King. As a teen, I loved the Shining, both book and film, and then read 4-5 more books, such as Cujo, Christine, and the Stand. Now in my forties, I’ve recently finished reading King’s Dark Tower series, considered his greatest work by many (including me), and I’ve found a new interest in reading his writings. I’ve started reading all the books which are related in some way to the Dark Tower series, of which Hearts in Atlantis is one. Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of novellas strung together by common characters, all of whom appear as the three childhood friends in the first novella on which the movie is based. This movie is based on that first novella, called Low Men in Yellow Coats. I think Stephen King is a master storyteller. His genre (horror, sci-fi) probably puts serious critics off, but King’s Constant Readers know what snooty critics cannot- the simple joy of chilling or suspenseful stories set in everyday American lives and settings. Having read the Dark Tower magnum opus (the Gunslinger Series of seven novels) before I read Hearts in Atlantis, I was able to even better appreciate the themes and references the two hold in common. It was like meeting old friends again, and catching up on old times. It must be very difficult creating believable screenplays from Stephen King books (or any books, for that matter), since it is so rarely done well. Books CAN make great films, as Stanley Kubrick (dir., The Shining) fans like me know; but it must be very hard to do. The movie versions of King books have, I’ve noticed, rarely survived their translation into film. This is a terrible tragedy, especially to those of us who, like King himself, love scary stories and scary movies. The film version of Hearts in Atlantis was very poorly translated, in my opinion. Within the first act, I realized how loosely based on the novella this movie would be, but still held out hope for a hint of King’s genius for creating believable characters. Instead, the screenplay and performances by everyone, including Hopkins I am sad to say, were stilted, wooden, and felt like a bad school play. Some critics have noted how family friendly this movie is. King books are not for families, as a general rule. This movie felt like a failed attempt at making a great King story into an ABC after school special. Surely there are better sources of material for family-friendly film fare than Stephen King books! For all things creepy, weird, and believably spooky, though, just go to your local bookstore and pick up any King book. Removing from the Atlantis film all references to the Crimson King, the Breakers, and Ted Brautigan’s connections to the Dark Tower epic, lowered the movie to a poor reflection of King’s original story. By acting, art direction, and directing that lacked passion and devotion to its roots in Stephen King’s devotion to believable characters, this film, in my opinion, went all the way down to the level of frustrating waste of time.… Full Review »
  2. RonnieW.
    9
    Wonderful movie... great story. i wish there are more movies like this.
  3. Sam
    10
    In my opinion, this is a spectacular, underated motion picture landmark. The acting, especially Mr. Hopkins. I was impressed with how the plot was about tellepathy and real-life happenings. Not some gazer beam trying to fry the world or some terrorist with a nuclear missle that'll alter the moon's orbit making chaos on earth. No, this is real stuff people. Rape, abuse, loss of a family member, loss of a friend, and financial problems. Spectacular overall, this is one of the best movies I have ever seen.… Full Review »
See all user reviews »