In theaters

“Hearts in Atlantis,” directed by Scott Hicks. Written by William Goldman, based on the book by Stephen King. 101 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The new Scott Hicks movie, “Hearts in Atlantis,” is a nostalgic, pop-culture dream, a coming-of-age film whose memories of the past are wrapped in such humid, honey-dipped hues, the harsher realities of the world, for the most part, are kept carefully at bay.

Based on “Low Men in Yellow Coats” and “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” two stories from Stephen King’s book, “Hearts in Atlantis,” the film, set during the summer of 1960, is about small-town America and the end of childhood innocence.

It seems tailor-made for difficult times, a warm-and-fuzzy confection of pseudo-deep introspections, life-affirming moments and twinkling mysticism that only occasionally brings down the room with such downers as unhappiness, tragedy and despair.

That’s a big departure from King’s deeper, more introspective and interesting book, which spans 40 years and examines how the Vietnam War affected its characters’ lives. But Hicks (“Shine,” “Snow Falling on Cedars”), working from a screenplay by William Goldman (“Misery”), nevertheless sustains interest, overcoming the film’s forced supernatural elements and its undeveloped feel with likable characters and a handful of terrific performances from an excellent cast.

Told in flashback, the film follows Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin), an 11-year-old boy whose life gets a lift when the mysterious sage, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins), takes the apartment above Bobby’s family home.

For Bobby, the relationship is a blessing. With his father dead and his difficult, self-absorbed mother (Hope Davis) too busy hating the world to be emotionally available to her son, Bobby needs the older man’s friendship and guidance, which he receives in the film’s best, truest scenes.

But when the movie hits its midpoint and Ted starts to drift into a weird hypnotic daze, his eyes glossing over as he mumbles something about a group of “low men” out to steal his psychic powers, the film skips a beat as Goldman’s script sinks into a supernatural fog.

Unlike the book, the film never fully explains who these men are. They just appear and reappear as a band of faceless gangsters in overcoats and shiny cars – and not as the alien presence King intended.

“Hearts in Atlantis” is being compared to other King adaptations, particularly “Stand By Me,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” and it’s easy to see why; the film has an old-fashioned charm that’s endearing, a romanticized connection to the past that feels inspired by the paintings of Norman Rockwell.

It doesn’t have the scope or the emotional range of its predecessors, and its ending is too pat and rushed, but it does score when Hicks captures what King does so well, such as the magic of first love, the atmosphere of memory, and the vivid snapshots of childhood’s bittersweet end.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

“Heartbreakers,” directed by David Mirkin. Written by Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur. 120 minutes. Rated PG-13.

In David Mirkin’s “Heartbreakers,” audiences will find all sorts of helpful advice, such as how to con four-star hotels into giving them their best suites for free, how glass can be used as a smart and sudden substitute for salt at pricey restaurants, and how marriage can be used to secure a financially rosy future in the face of an absolutely bleak present.

The film stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a mother-daughter team in cahoots to make a comfortable living off the kindness of strangers. Weaver is Max, a towering sexpot who marries wealthy men like Dean (Ray Liotta) and then steps aside so her daughter, Page (Hewitt), can seduce them. After catching them in the act, Max initiates the divorce and splits the settlement with her daughter.

They’re a well-oiled team. But when circumstances leave them penniless, they find themselves fleeing to Palm Beach, where they hope to pull off a final scam that includes Max posing as a Russian harlot, Gene Hackman hacking up a lungful of tar as a chain-smoking billionaire, and an unexpected romance between Page and a bartender (Jason Lee) who isn’t exactly what he seems.

At two hours, the film is 30 minutes too long, but a good deal of it is funny. It works best with Weaver, who’s physically like the World Wrestling Federation’s Chyna, but with less bite in her bridle, less trot in her gallop. She steals every scene she shares with Hewitt, who barely registers here, but when Weaver is paired opposite Hackman, the joy of watching two pros tear up the scenery is what seeing a comedy is all about.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO/DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Heartbreakers ? B+

The Mummy Returns ? D

Along Came a Spider ? C-

Citizen Kane

(DVD debut) ? A+

A Knight’s Tale ? C

Amores Perros ? A

Crocodile Dundee

in Los Angeles ? C-

Driven ? D

The Luzhin Defense ? B+

Startup.com ? A-

The Widow of St. Pierre ? A-

Spy Kids ? A-

Blow ? D+

Someone Like You ? D

The Dish ? A-

Exit Wounds ? D

Memento ? A-

The Tailor of Panama ? A-

Joe Dirt ? D+

See Spot Run ? F

Willy Wonka and the

Chocolate Factory ? A-

Hannibal ? C+

Say it Isn’t So ? D

15 Minutes ? D+

Blow Dry ? C+

Enemy at the Gates ? C

An Everlasting Piece ? B+

Get Over It ? B-

Josie and the Pussycats ? F