Now this is scary

>> Stephen King and Anthony Hopkins make a truly rotten team in Hearts in Atlantis

by MATTHEW HAYS

The latest film from director Scott Hicks, Hearts in Atlantis, stands as evidence that he's a truly overrated entity. He crashed the film scene in '96 with Shine, a mawkish film that everyone forgave for its mawkishness because it was based on a true story.

But there's no real-life pianist savant here, no cutesy romance, no saving grace. Nay, this is simply a dreary movie, punctuated throughout by garishly sentimental moments.

Set in the McCarthy era, Hearts in Atlantis has a cute little kid fall into a friendship with an older man (Hopkins) who shares astonishing secrets with the child. In particular, Hopkins has psychic capabilities, and it seems the child shares these powers. In a wildly underdeveloped part of the plot, the FBI is pursuing Hopkins as they want to use his psychic powers to root out communists. Their hunt of Hopkins threatens his newfound friendship with the photogenic child.

As with Hicks' previous work, the director spends much of the movie trying to push our buttons. You know the feeling, that of having your sentimental-response button pushed by unthinking and entirely unsubtle directors like this. It's both tiring and painful, and within the first 15 minutes of the film, when Hopkins and child bond in a way that only ever happens in movies like this, I was dying to walk out of the cinema.

Perhaps it was the power of Hopkins' most famous role, but I kept expecting him to lean over and take a bite out of the kid. Sadly for us, this is one of those "serious" King stories, sort of like Stand by Me--essentially horror-free. Really, this thing could have used some horror: blood and guts, ghosts, vampires, cannibals, zombies, chainsaws--anything to perk things up a wee bit.

Instead, we get more of the Hicks touch, sinking into wanton maudlin far, far too often. But there's hope on the horizon: Hearts in Atlantis, I suspect, will flop. Perhaps then Hicks won't be granted the budget to make another.

Hearts in Atlantis opens Friday, Sept. 28