The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Director: Atom Egoyan Cast: Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Maury Chaykin, Gabrielle Rose, Peter Donaldson, Bruce Greenwood Screenplay: Atom Egoyan Producers: Atom Egoyan, Camelia Frieberg Runtime: 110 min. US Distribution: Fine Line Features Rated R: Language, nudity, adult themes
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
There are good films that I can just sit through and enjoy on a mild level, slightly removed from the action on screen and never quite investing myself fully in the picture. And there are films like Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter that remind me of how powerful, how deeply complex and moving films can be. Egoyan's picture is a brilliant, masterful work of cinematic art on absolutely every level. It encased me from the opening shot and had me enticed until the last, defining moment.
Ian Holm leads the talented cast as Mitchell Stephens, a lawyer who goes to a small town in Canada where a tragic bus accident has just killed over twenty children. The story is non-linear in execution, and each scene jumps back and forth in time, through various moments before and after the accident. Stephens, in what is basically the present-time of the film, is trying to assemble various members of the community to form a law suit. He convinces many of them that the accident was not actually an "accident," and that someone needs to pay for the tragedy.
Stephens is the main character, but the various other characters make up the small-town community that is central to the story. The Sweet Hereafter frequently shifts back in time to Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley), a young woman who is well-liked by the community, and by her father Sam (Tom McCamus), who is a musician and very proud of his musical daughter. Later in the film there are scenes that take place after the accident, in which we see that Nicole, because of the accident, has lost the use of her legs.
I can't simply state the plot synopsis of this film, because it's not about getting from point A to point B, and what the characters do to get to these moments. This is a film about the chore of surviving a harrowing experience, about what it's like to live longer than your children. We get the feeling that this community was stable and happy before the accident, but the good will of the citizens disintegrates rapidly as Stephens' efforts actually end up separating the community even more.
The characters depicted here are realistic, completely fleshed-out, and excellently portrayed by the cast. Ian Holm, one of my favorite actors, is astonishing here. It is so nice to see him in his first leading role of his 40-plus year career as a stage and screen actor. He emits so much emotion without speaking--his acting is more in his physical movements than in his voice. At various points throughout the film, his daughter, a homeless junkie living on the streets, calls him on his cell phone as he is interviewing people in the town. The look on his face--the way we can see him imploding as he listens to the accusatory words of his daughter--is something that few actors can pull off.
Sarah Polley is subtle and direct as Nicole. Her transition from before the accident to afterwards is just a slight change, but still we detect a world of difference in her personality. Bruce Greenwood, who plays a man who loses two children in the accident, is also very good. He tries to start a minor uprising against Stephens; he feels that the issue should just be left alone.
The narrative structure of The Sweet Hereafter is amazing, and perhaps what I admire most about it. Egoyan's screenplay is based on the novel by Russell Banks, and this seems like the kind of non-linear story that, on paper, might seem impossible to film. Not unlike Anthony Minghella's work on The English Patient, Egoyan manages to tell this story completely detached from any comprehensible chronology without making it the slightest bit confusing. But what is different about this film is that understanding the timeline isn't important while watching the film.
The altered chronology is not a pointless gimmick: it serves to make the story more clear and immersive. Egoyan does not begin or end the film with the bus crash (which is a truly disturbing moment when we finally get to see it), because the film is mostly about the change in the society--what the accident does to the community. Stephens, at one crucial moment, admits why the case is so important to him (doubling as an explanation to the audience as to why he is the main character): "We've all lost our children," he says. Simple, direct, and true.
And that is exactly what The Sweet Hereafter is. There is not even a hint of manipulative sentimentality in Egoyan's film. Swelling, saddening music is common in films that deal with tragedies, but here the score (by Mychael Danna) is not overpowering and adds just enough color in each scene to match cinematographer Paul Sarossy's breathtaking imagery. This film is not about how awful a tragedy like this can be, but how torturous surviving it can be. In all of its simplicity, in the realistic and sympathetic way Egoyan observes these unfortunate men in women, The Sweet Hereafter is a moving, disturbing picture on levels that most films don't even touch.
>From 0-10: 10 Grade: A+
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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