Hearts in Atlantis: A fine name for an entirely different film

Have you seen the movie Hearts in Atlantis starring Anthony Hopkins? It’s a movie about a man with a mysterious power who is being hunted by “low men.” It’s an adaptation of a Stephen King novel by the same name, and though I am a huge fan of King’s work, I hadn’t gotten around to read the book until recently.

Turns out that Hearts in Atlantis (the book) is actually a collection of five short stories centered in the 1960’s, and the title of the book is also the title of the second story in the book.

But this is not the story from which the movie was adapted.

The story upon which the movie is based is titled “Low Men in Yellow Coats.” "Hearts in Atlantis" is the short story of some college boys who fall in love with and become addicted to the card game hearts (and is a tremendous short story).  there is nothing about hearts or card games or college boys in the film whatsoever.

I can understand renaming a movie that is based upon a book, as producers did when they adapted Stephen King’s short story "The Body" into the film Stand By Me or when they adapted his short story “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” and renamed it Shawshank Redemption.

But to name the movie after the wrong short story seems pretty stupid.