The Sweet Hereafter (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
'The Sweet Hereafter' (adapted from a novel & directed by Canadian Atom Agoyan) put me in a sort of inescapable emotional daze. Loosely based on a true story that occurred in Texas {Canada in this story}, this film is SO sad. And yet, it's also compulsively watchable. When a school bus in a small town in British Columbia, Canada swerves off the road & cascades into an icy lake below, 14 children perish & the injury of many; shaking the local townsfolk to their core. Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a lonely attorney with a heavy heart of his own, journeys to the small town to try to convince the parents of the victims to band together in a class action grievance suit. There is no clear culprit to sue for the bus accident. But some of the parents join him in the vain hope that $$ will soothe the pain.
Director Egoyan - glides btwn. past & present - piquing our curiosity, revealing details of the disastrous accident gradually. And its only near the hour mark of the film when we finally see WHAT happened that fateful day; and in an unforgettably chilling image of the bud careening off the road & disappearing. 'The Sweet Hereafter' conveys the agony of loss, and it also shows the power of parental love. The townsfolk cherish their now-departed children. Mitchell has lost his own daughter - in a way - to drugs; only phoning him for $$. And he interviews his fellow sufferers with a curious mix of motives: He is part ambulance chaser/part empathetic sage. Sure, he might want justice for these people, but he also wants some $$, and is mostly on a mission to assuage his own guilt about 'losing' a daughter.
Ian Holm is quietly superb; giving a searing performance that seethes below the surface of his face & eyes. Holm's most powerful moment is when he relates the story of how, as a baby, his daughter almost died from a spider bite. The juxtaposition of how he tells the story, the emotions he feels and how it all relates to his damaged relationship with said daughter today ... is staggering. His Mitchell can be viewed as worthy of contempt, but in this moment ... we sympathize with him.
The townsfolk are multi-faceted individuals, as well; from the guilt-ridden bus driver, Dolores (Gabrielle Rose); to the emotionally-crippled hippie couple whose adopted son dies in the accident; to widower/grieving father Billy (stellar Bruce Greenwood), who sees Mitchell as an immoral intruder who's unknowingly tearing apart the community more so; to aspiring 15 yr. old singer, Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley) & her too-adoring father, Sam (Tom McCamus). The link btwn. their incestuous relationship & the bus accident is one of the elusive mysteries of the film; one of several odd associations of innocence & evil co-existing.
Dread permeates every scene; whether it's the haunting use of The Pied Piper of Hamlin story being read by Nicole to the young children she babysits {she survives the bus crash and is crippled while the kids perish}; or an adulterous affair; or the clips of the bus driving along the road on that cold, snowy day; or the mortal ramifications of a nest of baby spiders. Death or the threat of death is everywhere; including the death of these people's souls.
So do these people join Mitchell in his stance that a grievance suit {the town wins a lot of $$ and Mitchell gets 30%} will alleviate some of their misery, or can nothing halt the devastation? With greed for compensation fracturing the community further ... perhaps the only thing they can do is to keep living and trying to repair their lives the best they know how. 'The Sweet Hereafter' is probably one of the most depressing movies I've seen; rivaling another 1997 film, The Ice Storm. But it left me stunned {in a good way}; stunned at the expertise with which Egoyan, his actors, the cinematographer, the music and every other aspect coalesce to provide a film about a community trying {and often failing} to connect & find meaning from an inexplicable tragedy.
Director Egoyan - glides btwn. past & present - piquing our curiosity, revealing details of the disastrous accident gradually. And its only near the hour mark of the film when we finally see WHAT happened that fateful day; and in an unforgettably chilling image of the bud careening off the road & disappearing. 'The Sweet Hereafter' conveys the agony of loss, and it also shows the power of parental love. The townsfolk cherish their now-departed children. Mitchell has lost his own daughter - in a way - to drugs; only phoning him for $$. And he interviews his fellow sufferers with a curious mix of motives: He is part ambulance chaser/part empathetic sage. Sure, he might want justice for these people, but he also wants some $$, and is mostly on a mission to assuage his own guilt about 'losing' a daughter.
Ian Holm is quietly superb; giving a searing performance that seethes below the surface of his face & eyes. Holm's most powerful moment is when he relates the story of how, as a baby, his daughter almost died from a spider bite. The juxtaposition of how he tells the story, the emotions he feels and how it all relates to his damaged relationship with said daughter today ... is staggering. His Mitchell can be viewed as worthy of contempt, but in this moment ... we sympathize with him.
The townsfolk are multi-faceted individuals, as well; from the guilt-ridden bus driver, Dolores (Gabrielle Rose); to the emotionally-crippled hippie couple whose adopted son dies in the accident; to widower/grieving father Billy (stellar Bruce Greenwood), who sees Mitchell as an immoral intruder who's unknowingly tearing apart the community more so; to aspiring 15 yr. old singer, Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley) & her too-adoring father, Sam (Tom McCamus). The link btwn. their incestuous relationship & the bus accident is one of the elusive mysteries of the film; one of several odd associations of innocence & evil co-existing.
Dread permeates every scene; whether it's the haunting use of The Pied Piper of Hamlin story being read by Nicole to the young children she babysits {she survives the bus crash and is crippled while the kids perish}; or an adulterous affair; or the clips of the bus driving along the road on that cold, snowy day; or the mortal ramifications of a nest of baby spiders. Death or the threat of death is everywhere; including the death of these people's souls.
So do these people join Mitchell in his stance that a grievance suit {the town wins a lot of $$ and Mitchell gets 30%} will alleviate some of their misery, or can nothing halt the devastation? With greed for compensation fracturing the community further ... perhaps the only thing they can do is to keep living and trying to repair their lives the best they know how. 'The Sweet Hereafter' is probably one of the most depressing movies I've seen; rivaling another 1997 film, The Ice Storm. But it left me stunned {in a good way}; stunned at the expertise with which Egoyan, his actors, the cinematographer, the music and every other aspect coalesce to provide a film about a community trying {and often failing} to connect & find meaning from an inexplicable tragedy.