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ABOUT
THE STORY?
 "Hearts
in Atlantis" tells the story of a boy whose friendship with a mysterious
stranger forever changes the way he sees the world. The film opens
with fifty year old Bobby Garfield (David Morse) returning to his
hometown to attend the funeral of one of his best friends from childhood.
"In coming back, Bobby revisits this magical moment in his childhood
that was almost precisely the moment when his childhood ended and
his adolescence began," says director Scott Hicks. "Those few weeks
with Ted, this intriguing man, changed Bobby?s life. It opened a
door for him into his future that he walked through and became the
adult that he is now."
During
his trip home, Bobby can?t help but visit the old house where he
grew up, which is now a ruin. And through the window that used to
look toward the house of Carol Gerber, his childhood sweetheart,
he looks back into the past ? to the last summer of his childhood.
"In that instant, all the memories flood back to him of those amazing
few weeks that he spent as a child with Ted whose curious power
is something that will have an impact on Bobby for the rest of his
life," explains Hicks.
 On
his 11th birthday, Bobby, played by newcomer Anton Yelchin, has
a major disappointment to contend with. Instead of the bicycle he
has been dreaming about, his mother Liz, played by Hope Davis, gives
him a library card. "Liz is a neglectful, self-absorbed, angry mother
who has had a hard lot in life," says Davis, who shot to the top
of critics lists with her performance in the romantic drama "Next
Stop Wonderland." "She is a single mother in the ?50s and in that
era, only two percent of women in Liz?s age group weren?t married.
She is trying to scratch her way up any way she can, and she?s been
prevented in doing so, so she thinks, because of this child that
she?s been saddled with."
"There?s
a line in the script which comes from the book, ?She didn?t mean
to be here,?" says screenwriter William Goldman. "She has a tough
life. She?s not evil. She didn?t mean to be here when she was 35,
working in a crummy job, being hit on by the boss and with a kid.
It?s not what she meant for her life. But I don?t think she?s evil,
I just think she wants more than she has."
"Bobby
doesn?t have such a great relationship with his mom," says Anton
Yelchin. "But he?s a really nice kid and pretty smart. His dad died
when he was five and he doesn?t have anything. But then his life
gets exciting because Ted Brautigan moves in."
 Appearing
suddenly on the doorstep of the boarding house where they live with
all his belongings in shopping bags, Ted inspires instant liking
from Bobby and suspicion from Liz. "Ted comes out of nowhere," says
Anthony Hopkins, who most recently reprised his Oscar? winning role
as the title character in the worldwide hit "Hannibal." "There?s
no explanation for him, a bit like Shane in the western film. He
has a history and a mystery about him. He?s certainly not a sinister
man. He?s a good man, a very good man. A very gentle man. There?s
nothing spooky about him at all."
 Bobby
is cautious at first but eventually they become friends. "Ted is
incredibly intelligent," says Anton Yelchin. "He explains things
and tells Bobby about poets and authors Bobby has never even dreamed
of. Ted is very interesting to Bobby, who has never really had anything
of this sort in his life. Ted amazes him."
Ted
gives Bobby a job reading the daily paper aloud to spare Ted?s failing
eyes. He also asks Bobby to do an additional job for him.
Men are looking for him, "low men, fellows who are ruthless and
dangerous to know," says Ted. Ted wants Bobby to keep his eyes open
and his senses sharp. And for that he?ll give him a dollar a week.
"Ted moves in upstairs and in a sense becomes a sort of father figure
to him," says director Scott Hicks. "Bobby?s mother is not paying
him any attention. He has no father, so there?s a big, emotional
empty space. And Ted fills that space for a few brief weeks, which
has a resounding impact on Bobby?s life and future."
 Bobby
begins to learn something else about his new neighbor and friend.
"It?s a gradual process by which Bobby begins to find out that Ted
has this curious power, this insight, this ?window? as he calls
it," says Hicks. "It happens quite incidentally. Bobby and Ted are
talking in the evening when Ted says, ?I might have a job for you
later, Bobby, and you might be able to buy that bike.? And Bobby,
of course, hasn?t said anything about a bike. So, this is the first
clue, and then those clues are expanded on until Bobby begins to
understand that Ted has this special power, and he can hand it on,
with physical contact with someone, that opens a window of insight
in other people."
Liz
Garfield?s feelings, however, only worsen. "The mother resents him
because, obviously, she resents everyone," says Hopkins. "And she
resents strangers. She?s not a bad woman. She?s just a little locked
up in herself. She doesn?t like the influence she suspects that
he?s having over the boy. He?s in fact having no influence at all
? he?s just being a friend to him, almost like a guardian angel."
 But
Ted?s gifts are also what make him a target. "He is being hunted
by some shadowy figures who are called the ?low men,?" says Hopkins.
"They?re not from Mars or anything spooky. Ted has a gift, a psychic
gift. He?s not Cassandra, but he intuits; he has a powerful intuitive
gift. And he?s wanted by this agency. They?re perhaps government
agents. Maybe CIA. Maybe FBI. Maybe a secret clandestine group.
Maybe Mafia. But it?s never really stated. It?s unknown. But he?s
wanted by these shadowy figures because he has a powerful gift and
they want to use it."
 Meanwhile,
Bobby?s friendship with Carol Gerber blossoms into something more.
"The thing about Carol is, the only boy that really is nice to her
all throughout her life is Bobby," says Mika Boorem. "He?s the only
one. And she was so special that he remembers her. And Carol remembers
Bobby too. Their friendship is pretty great, which is why they never
forget each other for the rest of their lives."
 "Bobby
doesn?t even know that he loves her yet," says Hope Davis. "He just
knows that he likes to walk to school with her and she?s his best
pal. It?s just a beautiful, innocent relationship to contrast to
what?s happened in his mother?s life and where the ups and downs
that his life is going to take him through and yet he still has
this vision of Carol to kind of pull him up."
For
Goldman his reference to Atlantis, encapsulates everything these
characters are experiencing. "I think it fits for this thing because
when Ted says it, it?s this magical early evening in summertime
and everybody is so happy. And Ted knows it?s all going to go away.
Ted knows it?s not going to last, and he?s the only one who knows
that."
 The
events of Bobby?s life are about to take a dark, dramatic turn.
"This story takes place at the point in this child?s life where
he becomes aware of a bigger and darker world out there," says Hicks.
"It is in many ways the last summer of his childhood. Emotionally,
it is a very raw and telling moment and one that unleashes a series
of powerful events for him. And Bobby, the child, has to bear witness
to all of these things but of course he is powerless to prevent
any of it from happening, and yet he?s right at the heart of it
all. It is one of those moments in which you become aware of how
deep and complicated life can be. And for those who have never experienced
it, it gives some hint of the things that lie ahead."
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GENDER
ROLES
Subject: "Hearts
In Atlantis" Newsletter_28
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001
From: "Doug Sirman"
I saw an enormous amount of attention paid to gender roles in this
movie; particularly in the differing ways of relating to one another.
While
Liz's gift to Bobby of a library card could be seen as cheap and
meaningless, I almost see it as her handing her son a key to his
adulthood. >From King's earlier writings, we see the importance
of the Library as a touchstone of growth and maturation, and this
gift seems to carry with it an admission on Liz's part that while
she cannot give to Bobby what he needs, she can show him the pathway
to getting it himself. While Liz cannot be a father to Bobby and
show him what it is to be a man, she can be a mother to him and
show him the way to becoming a man.
Typically
speaking, modeling gender roles are expressed by women providing
emotional resonance and empathy, whereas men provide rationality
and abstract structure. It's no secret that King views literature,
although perhaps not exclusively, as the domain of rationality in
an irrational world. For Bobby, the act of reading becomes very
"male" in its relational context. Indeed, his relationship with
Brautigan begins with the act of reading the news to Ted; this is
Ted's inroad to becoming Bobby's friend and vice-versa. They form
a relationship, but unlike Bobby's relationship with his mother,
it is based in structured rationality, and is definitively male
in its essence.
It is also in this rational, relational activity that Ted warns
Bobby of the danger of "the low men." What's fascinating about this
is that we're not even sure if these men exist or if they're a figment
of Ted's imagination. While they are certainly externalized in the
plot of the story, the metaphysical warning to Bobby is clear: There
is a danger that you, on your way to becoming a man, could become
like these low men. Indeed, King's description of them as "dangerous
to know" echoes the degenerate genius Byron's self-description as
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know." Brautigan seems to be saying
to Bobby, "Take care on your way to manhood, that you do not become
like them."
YBIC,
Doug Sirman
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HEARTS
IN ATLANTIS
