It's been many years now but every once in a while I go through this story/movie again, bringing up the same emotions and fondness of it. This movie is nothing spectacular, not a major hit by any standards, but personal experience for intelligent and thoughtful people. Behind it is some brilliant work of Mr. King (at his best, when not writing horror stories),which makes him (for me, at least) one of the best writers America ever had. And this story has been told through an excellent movie, with carefully picked up cast, to give probably their best, yet simple, performances. It is a very smooth movie, very well and sensibly directed. I'm highly recommending it but not to everyone - just to the ones who know how to appreciate a little masterpiece. To them it will be timeless. Everyone else – just forget it.

Eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield lives in New England in 1960, with his mother and his friends Carol and Sully. Ted Brautigan, a strange old man, moves into the rooms upstairs and the two become good friends, but Bobby soon discovers Ted is on the run from some sinister figures known only as The Low Men ...

This is a charming little movie which doesn't really have much of a plot, it's just about a friendship between a boy and an old man. It is extraordinarily rich in character though, and the four leads all step into their roles perfectly. It's also an exquisitely well-made period-piece of the time, by which I mean to say everything looks right - the clothes, the hairstyles, the cars, the furniture and so on - without ever drawing your attention to the fact. It's based on a great book by Stephen King which is really five separate stories with lots of linking themes and characters, all centred around the Vietnam war. The movie is really only the first story in the novel, Low Men In Yellow Coats, so if you want to find out more about Bobby, Carol and Sully, please read the book (though be warned it's not too cheery). Eloquently scripted by William Goldman, and featuring a great atmospheric score by Mychael Danna. Beautifully photographed in Virginia by Piotr Sobocinski, who sadly died not long after its completion.

If anyone is looking for some typical Stephen King fare with lots of blood and vividly imagined monsters, Hearts of Atlantis is not your film. If however your taste runs to well acted drama about growing up in the early sixties Hearts of AAtlantis is definitely the film for you. Although it's not stated my gut tells me that this tale is somewhat autobiographical.

David Morse comes back to the small town he grew up in to attend the funeral of a friend killed in action, presumably Kuwait during Desert Storm. He also learns that his first girl friend also passed on a few years earlier. They were a trio that hung out and did things together as kids. Morse's mind wanders back to those innocent days when Anton Yelchin as young Morse, Will Rothhaar as the man who was killed as a youngster and Mika Boorem as the girl friend are all of eleven.

Yelchin lives with his mother Hope Davis, a woman made bitter by the split between her and Yelchin's father. Into their lives comes a mysterious boarder whom Davis takes in because she needs the money, but remains suspicious. The stranger is Anthony Hopkins and he and Yelchin form a bond.

Hopkins is a fugitive, but not in the usual sense. As we discover he's got powers and abilities far beyond those of ordinary men which are in the mind reading field. It's a gift and a curse and Hopkins is wanted by some mysterious strangers who want to make use of his abilities. Presumably this is the Central Intelligence Agency.

Hearts in Atlantis is a tender and loving film that is made by the performances of Anthony Hopkins and the juvenile cast around him. Best scene in the film is Hopkins defusing a confrontation between Yelchin and friends and a school bully played by Timothy Reifsnyder. Hopkins reads Reifsnyder and tells him things about himself he would not want known, but they do ring true and play into the pathology of bullying.

This is an absolute must see films, one of the best screen performances by Anthony Hopkins on film.