Hearts in Atlantis

An adolescent in 1960 (Anton Yelchin), neglected by his widowed mother (Hope Davis), befriends a mysterious neighbor (Anthony Hopkins). William Goldman’s script is based on a book by Stephen King in his forced-nostalgia Stand By Me mode. The story and characters feel fake and schematic: flashback framework (from the funeral of a character who hardly appears in the film at all), deep-sigh poetry that sounds important but doesn’t really say anything, brave smiles in the face of slings and arrows, canned “insights” (including the strained title) and wistful moments cribbed from other movies, all set to the obligatory oldies-but-goodies soundtrack. Hopkins caresses his lines with fastidious precision, while young Yelchin mugs with the grating confidence of a TV-commercial tyke grasping for stardom.