Hopkins weepy leaves festival cold

Melodrama Hearts in Atlantis was certainly not expected

By the BBC's Neil Smith

The Surprise Film is traditionally one of the hottest tickets at the London Film Festival.

A closely guarded secret right up to the second the curtains open, it always provokes feverish speculation.

Sometimes the festival produces a coup, as when it presented the first UK screening of The Insider.

Then again the organisers can also get it spectacularly wrong.

Who could forget the time the Surprise Film turned out to be the Keanu Reeves turkey Johnny Mnemonic?

Hopkins stars as a character with special powers

So it was with eager anticipation that a sell-out crowd gathered in Leicester Square on Sunday to see this year's mystery unveiled.

Festival director Adrian Wootton was giving nothing away, merely saying it was directed by "a very interesting man" and was "based on a very interesting book".

Immediately the candidates narrowed to Charlotte Gray and The Shipping News, though the more optimistic among us still held out hope Wootton had somehow obtained a print of Lord of the Rings.

It was something of a let-down, then, when the film was revealed to be Hearts in Atlantis, a weepy melodrama starring Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Elegant

Based on two short stories by Stephen King, Hearts is the new film from Scott Hicks - best known for the Oscar-winning Shine.

Set in 1960, it tells of Bobby Garfield, an 11-year-old boy growing up in picturesque New England with his widowed mother.

The film is from two Stephen King stories

Hopkins plays Ted Brautigan, an ageing stranger who rents a room in their house and strikes up a friendship with Bobby.

Ted, we learn, has bizarre psychic powers which are highly sought after by the FBI. Then again, he could just be a fugitive on the run from the law.

Whatever his provenance, Ted becomes a father figure to Bobby, helping him face up to local bullies and win the heart of the girl of his dreams.

Elegantly photographed by the late Piotr Sobocinski, Hearts has a fine pedigree. Screenwriter William Goldman also adapted Misery for the screen, while the nostalgic mood and plot recall the earlier King adaptation Stand By Me.

Despite a superb performance from Hopkins, however, the general reaction was muted.

"Slow and boring" opined one audience member afterwards, while another claimed she had fallen asleep halfway through.

"I wouldn't have rented it at the video store, let alone pay to see it at the cinema," said IT consultant Scott Phillips.

Hearts in Atlantis will be released in the UK next year.