A Good Heart Indeed
Main Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Mika Boorem
Director: Scott Hicks
Nostalgia, tinged with both wistfulness and fear, permeates this solid drama adapted from a Stephen King story. It is an excellent vehicle to display Hopkin’s mastery of calm intelligence, with just a trace of uncertain dread around the corner.
This tale revolves around Bobby Garfield (Yelchin), who lives in a place “where nothing ever happens”. But it is a good place, with dependable friends Sully (Will Rothhaar) and Carol (Boorem), and they fill their days with laughter and play, marred only by his mother Liz (Davis), who spends most of the time at work and all of the spare money on clothes and such.
Things change when a lodger moves into the rooms above their house. Ted (Hopkins) seems only wish to live quietly, but takes on Bobby to read the paper to him. Later, when they have developed a friendship, he tells the boy certain things about his past, and his watchfulness for the “Low Men”, who need something that he has.
The setting is superb, all color and motion and stuff: bikes, baseball mitts, bottles of root beer, and cigarettes. Everything done is with purpose, and even the periphery characters are given certain depth and understanding. I quite enjoyed this movie, and could guess what each of the people would do in a given circumstance, compliments both to the writing and certainly to the acting, which is very well done all around.
As for the plot, things slowly build to a fair conclusion which pulls no punches and scorns cliche. I think you will enjoy this one, and it may leave you with thoughts of your own childhood. I can only hope that they are, in whole, good ones.
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