Film review by Kevin Patterson
The Sweet Hereafter **** R, 1997 Directed and written by Atom Egoyan. Based on a novel by Russell Banks. Starring Ian Holm, Caerthan Banks, Sarah Polley.
Whoever saw to it that the story of "The Sweet Hereafter," in which a lawyer wants to sue for negligence when over a dozen children are killed in a bus accident in a small town in British Columbia, fell into the hands of independent Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has done a service to modern cinema. I can imagine, quite clearly, how a Hollywood studio would have handled this: first off, we would have seen a slow-motion shot of the bus skidding off the road. Then the lawyer would arrive and discover that a Greedy Corporation is to blame for not following safety standards. Then their morally despicable executives would try, unsucessfully, to quell the lawsuit. Finally, there would be a resounding courtroom victory with a swell of classical music in the background.
None of that happens in "The Sweet Hereafter." Egoyan is less concerned with the accident itself than he is with the townspeople, the lawyer Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), and how they are affected in its aftermath. The story is not told in linear order, and in fact it is not completely clear until the end how it all fits together. But this is not simply artsiness for the sake of artsiness; Egoyan uses this framework to show us more clearly how the characters are changed by the accident. At the same time, the non-linear structure works in exactly the opposite way in the examination of Holm's character; no matter what day or even what year it is, he is always trying to relate to his estranged drug-addict daughter who sporadically contacts him by telephone. He is the one character who seems to be a constant, who is always occupied by the same struggle, whether the film is in flashback, present-day, or flash-forward.
When Stephens arrives, he is understandably met with skepticism from some of the residents who think he is exploiting the situation. He certainly knows the tricks of his trade very well; one of his top priorities is to make sure that none of his clients or witnesses are in any way disreputable, so as to be sure that their testimony will be taken seriously. Even when he delivers an impassioned speech explaining that he seeks to punish whatever person or corporate entity was responsible for the accident (presumably through negligence), we still wonder if he is manipulating the grieving parents. It is not until the situation with his daughter becomes clear that we see otherwise: having failed to protect or rescue his own child from the dangers of society, he seeks to protect others and, as he says himself, to give voice to the anger over tragedies such as the bus accident.
Unfortunately, not everyone in town is quite on the same page, and no one is perfect either. The couple who first contacted him are emotionally distant from each other, and the wife (Alberta Watson) has been conducting an affair with local widower Billy Ansel (Bruce Greenwood). Billy himself sees Stephens as a threat to the community who is undermining the support that residents had always provided for each other. One couple seems to share Stephens's desire to punish those who may have been negligent, but another couple seems to be in it for the money. The latter couple's daughter Nicole (Sarah Polley), who survived the accident, begins to wonder if she is being used and starts to resist, but in a very questionable way. And then there is Stephens himself, who doesn't really seem to know where to direct the anger of which he speaks. Never once is he able to explain exactly *who* was negligent in this case - he is simply determined to sue *somebody*.
"The Sweet Hereafter" is not about who is "right" or "wrong" in this situation, as most of those involved appear, at the very least, to be acting out of good intentions. Rather, the film examines the fragility of human relationships and how a group of people, all trying to do the right thing in one way or another, end up at odds with each other. There is a certain stillness and tranquility which Egoyan evokes through his exterior shots of the rural, snow-bound town, but this sense of peace and acceptance lingers throughout the film, even after Stephens's shaky alliance starts to crack and members of the community start to divide against each other. It is as if the failure of the characters to achieve reconciliation following the accident is simply an inevitabilty.do the right thing in one way or another, end up at odds with each other.
This may make the film sound unrelentingly grim, yet the tone of "The Sweet Hereafter" is not one of nihilistic resignation, but merely one of regret that only imperfect closure seems to be possible. Some character-centered films focus on an obviously flawed protagonist and how the person eventually manages to overcome a clearly negative aspect of his or her life or personality. For the lead characters in "The Sweet Hereafter" - most notably Stephens, Nicole, and Billy - the road is not quite so perilous, but none of them quite reach the end either.
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