The Sweet Hereafter Review
by Ted Prigge (chandlerb AT geocities DOT com)January 26th, 1998
THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997)
A Film Review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Atom Egoyan
Writer: Atom Egoyan (based on the novel by Russel Banks) Starring: Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Alberta Watson, Tom McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Maury Chaykin, David Hemblen, Arsinée Khanjian, Earl Patsko, Caerthan Banks, Brooke Johnson, Stephanie Morgernstern
"The Sweet Hereafter" is the haunting, sad new film from Atom Egoyan, a Canadian filmmaker who makes films which revolve around characters and raise themes and ideas about them. His new film revolves around the effects of a horrible tragedy on the small town, as well as about the effects of death and tragedy on humanity. When something like this happens, people are always trying to point a finger at someone to make them feel better about their grief. In this film, everyone's searching for an answer to the major accident that has taken place.
Presented in non-linear form, with several plots running simultatneously, the film explores what happened when a school bus filled with kids hit an ice patch on a slick road one morning, and ended up crashing into an icy lake, killing most of the kids, and leaving a few crippled survivors, and destroying the community. In to "help" is Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a lawyer who is out to sue anyone who had anything to do with the accident, like the guys who made the bus or the people who built the railing along the road that the bus crashed through.
But Mitchell has problems all his own. His daugher, Zoe (Caerthan Banks), is a drug addict who has been in and out of several rehabs without any luck. He is divorced from his wife, and is continually getting collect calls from Zoe, whom he fears will end up being the police to say that they've found her body somewhere. At the same time that he's worrying about her continually, he has to be a cold-hearted bastard in picking on the poor people of the town who are mostly up for blaming whoever Mitchell says is responsible, but Mitchell is just like them anyway.
The story "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" by Robert Browning is read throughout the film to symbolize the entire accident, but the film doesn't accentuate the kids who are led into the mountain by the angry piper, but the lame boy who wasn't allowed to go with the other kids. The one kid we see who survived, the older Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley, looking like a young Uma Thurman) with a bit of an Electra complex, has been confined to a whellchair, brooding over her previous life, and seeming to pine over the death of her peers.
But she's not the only lame kid in the film; it seems that the entire community who had to live through it are the lame kid. Everyone in the film is dealing with the accident in their own way, either if its blaming someone, just wanting to find an answer, or merely brooding over it. The bus driver (Gabrielle Rose) has to live with the fact that she accidentally killed a bunch of kids, but is trying to get over it. Two very liberal parents, Wanda and Hartley Otto (Arsinée Khanjian and Earl Patsko, respectively), have lost their adopted Indian son, and want whomever had anything to do with it to go to jail until they die.
Meanwhile, Risa, who has been having an affair with a widower, Billy Ansell (Bruce Greenwood), has succumb to the persuasions of Mitchell, whom Billy has built up a distaste for after some run-ins with him, and threat of a subpoena being sent his way at the trial since he was driving his truck behind the bus when it crushed. Billy, who was waving to his kids who were sitting in the back of the bus before it crashed and killed them, is unable to really cope with the loss of not only his wife (who died before the events in the film) but of his kids, and has alienated himself from everyone else, but is not up to simply blaming someone for the accident.
The flashbacks to the accident, as well as events in Mitchell's private life intercut the story which shows us the aftermath of the accident, and result. But none of these are distracting. In fact, the background of Mitchell's life (like a story about how Zoe almost died of a black widow bite when she was a baby) helps round out his character so he's not some villanous John Grisham lawyer. Egoyan never gives us a narrator, and thus makes "The Sweet Hereafter" into a bit of a puzzle, with parts the viewer has to piece together. The opening montage doesn't make much sense until one sees the rest of the film, thus making the opening images more poignant.
The acting from everyone is brilliant, as all of them are deep in misery thorughout the present day part of the film. Alberta Watson and Bruce Greenwood are amazing as the cheating pair, who grow apart because of the accident (Greenwood is especially brilliant). Egoyan regulars Chaykin, Gabrielle Rose, David Hemblem, and his wife Arsinée Khanjian are on hand in several smaller roles, and all shine as usual. And Sarah Polley is absolutely amazing as the quietly depressed survivor Nicole, who we're never really sure what she's thinking (especially in one of the final shocking scenes).
But acting-wise, the movie belongs to veteran British actor, Ian Holm, who's been in movies since the 60s, but never really become any kind of legend. He's more of a cult star, having appeared in numerous films, from Ash the android in "Alien" to the weasel-looking Polonious in the Mel Gibson version of "Hamlet" and most recently as the priest in "The Fifth Element," Holm has not always been one of the most popular, but definitely one of the best. But this is perhaps his most brilliant performance. We see a shewd jerk on the surface of his character, a man with a stone face who can say to his daughter without stuttering "I don't know who I'm talking to anymore." But underneath is a man who is quitely sad, harbored by such intense misery and even more depressed than any of the people in the town. When he finally does break down and cry, I wanted to cry along with him. Holm's is probably the best performance of the year.
But this film is really Egoyan's, who paints every single scene with the right kind of atmosphere, and sense of misery that it needs. From the first couple scenes to the finale, he holds us in his hypnotic grasp, and hits every single right emotional cord. I think I counted about six times when I was just about to cry (I never cry at movies, at least in the theaters). And his writing is brilliant, layering out the film perfectly and flawlessly interjecting flashbacks in to the plot without harming the underlying storyline. The film unfolds beautifully, much like Egoyan's other films do, but in a more emotional and interesting fashion.
Take for example the bus crash scene, which in any other movie would take place in the beginning. He positions it in the middle of the film, building it up so much that when it finally occurs, it's not anti-climactic, but emotionally draining. And it's not even nihilistic: we don't see the bus go off the cliff, but we see it in the face of Bruce Greenwood, who witnesses the entire thing. The sight of the bus sliding along the thin ice, then crashing is still one of the scariest things I've seen this year or any other year.
"The Sweet Hereafter" is perhaps the most poignant and saddening film I've seen all year. Afterwards, I felt emotionally moved, and could hardly get out of my seat. The reason for this is it's smartly done, not controlling the audience, but allowing us to reach our own conclusion. It has a long-lasting effect on people because it doesn't answer everything this movie brings up. There are many things I've been thinking about after seeing this film, and have not come up with the answers yet. The people in this film are all searching for answers, but the sad truth it there is none. It was an accident, and looking for any kind of answer to all the questions will lead to only more suffering and depression. There is no answer to many of the questions posed by this film, and becuase the film knows that, it lingers on farther than any film released this year.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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