The Sweet Hereafter
Composite Score: 86.37
Starring: Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Caerthan Banks, Tom McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Alberta Watson, Maury Chaykin, Stephanie Morganstern, Arsinée Khanjian, Earl Pastko, and Bruce Greenwood
Director: Atom Egoyan
Writer: Atom Egoyan
Genres: Drama, Mystery
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality and some language
Box Office: $3.26 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
The Sweet Hereafter is Atom Egoyan’s film adaptation of Russell Banks’s novel of the same name about a lawyer who comes to help facilitate a class-action lawsuit in a rural Canadian town after a bus crash killed most of the town’s children. The film also draws heavy influences from the Pied Piper of Hamelin fairy tale, including in its almost medieval score. It stars Ian Holm as lawyer Mitchell Stephens whose relationship with his own drug-addicted daughter looms large over his interactions with the town’s bereft parents. Sarah Polley features as the sole child survivor of the crash, Nicole Burnell, who has her own secrets to work through even as she processes her trauma from the bus crash. They are joined by Gabrielle Rose as the bus driver Dolores Driscoll and Bruce Greenwood as widower and now bereft father Billy Adsel who objects entirely to the lawsuit and the division that it has brought to their small-town community. The film’s exploration of grief, both personal and communal, via a nonlinear structure make it a lasting film in the pantheon and earned Egoyan nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director at the 1998 Academy Awards.
Somehow, the excellence of this film results from its completion. None of its parts operating independently could be a good film on their own, but together, they’re something great. The whole cast gives solid, but understated performances, highlighting the shock that comes with a type of tragedy such as this, showcasing the grief of parents who will never see their children again, reinforced by Holm’s performance as the lawyer with his own “lost” child – addicted to drugs. The score, which would sound quirky or out of place in most films helps add to this film’s air of something otherworldly – that it’s a film grounded in reality but telling us something far more universal and lasting than a single story of loss. Each of the narratives – be it the unfolding present where Stephens goes from family to family, seeking witnesses to place the blame somewhere and potentially bring the community some closure, or the tragic past where the crash and the secrets of the town are revealed with haunting stoicism, or the quiet future where Stephens reminisces on the tragedy of his own daughter while seated on the plane next to one of her childhood friends – is decently compelling but not overly groundbreaking, but when woven together as they have been in The Sweet Hereafter, we’re left with a frustratingly unfulfilled narrative that reminds the audience of the hollow feeling of grief. Wrapped up all in one, the film is far greater than the sum of its parts, giving us plenty to ruminate on and not much to feel closure about, much as a real tragedy would.
Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter tells audiences a cohesive and compelling story of grief and the ways that humans seek to deal with it, showcased in every aspect of the film, which work together to make something worth a spot among the greats. The lack of closure and general jumpiness of the plot might disorient or even frustrate some viewers, but those who choose to follow it through to its ending are sure to be left with something to dwell on for days to come. Currently, this film can be streamed via the Criterion Channel if you’d like to check it out in the coming days.
