HEARTS OF ATLANTIS. 2001

Well acted, well filmed, & not even all that badly written, the film is nevertheless poky & not at all memorable. It's the sort of film one completely forgets having already seen in the theater & accidentally rents on DVD only to remember the whole uninteresting story fifteen minutes into mistakenly watching it again, which is actually what happened to me & Granny Artemis.

The Stephen King-based story focuses mainly on his trademark "when I was a boy" nostalgia & sentimentality, but entirely mutes the supernatural element. The book has some supernatural encounters that are pretty intense, but they didn't make the cut in the film script, which can't decide if it wants to be a gutless Christian Family Channel story or not.

Sir Anthony Hopkins coasts on his own presence but does very little with the little he has to work with. The opening scenes before the nostalgic flashback begins has a better performance from the excellent but too often underrated David Morse, & as soon as the flashback to childhood rids the film of Morse's presence, it never regains any momentum.

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