THE SWEET HEREAFTER *** (out of four)
starring Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Tom McCamus written by Atom Egoyan, based on the novel by Russell Banks directed by Atom Egoyan
No filmmaker deconstructs a story as well as Atom Egoyan. I'm referring, specifically, to the narrative form. In The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan tells his story in a similar framework to his Exotica or The Adjuster. Said story, of a fatal school bus accident in the small town of Sam Dent, British Columbia, that shatters the morale of the locals, is told in a most unstraightforward manner.
When the film opens, the accident has already happened, and Stephens (the wonderful Holm), a polite ambulance-chaser, has arrived with the promise of a lawsuit that will eek out the truth of what really occurred that fateful morning. Throughout, we get to meet the parents of the dead, broken souls who follow Stephens like "The Pied Piper" (passages of which are read during the film). But there is one living passenger, the paralyzed Nicole (Polley), whose dark secrets of a life before the accident may affect her decision to testify.
We finally do see the accident, about three quarters into the film, which is a stunning visual effect. A horrific long take that shows the bus sliding, then stopping, then collapsing into a frozen lake, is the best digital trickery in any movie this year and, perhaps, ever, in a motion picture.
The fractured narrative also intercuts a preoccupied Stephens on an airplane, traveling to meet his HIV-positive runaway daughter, as well as glimpses of the artificially happy lives these people led pre-accident.
I have a problem not with the story or story structure, but with Egoyan's heavy- handedness behind the camera. For the first hour or so, I can quite honestly say I was on the verge of tears; these are miserable, miserable people. But that's just the problem: so anguished are these folk that sympathy wanes after a while, when a lot of sadness becomes too much. Also, a subplot involving incest rings untrue. Perhaps it wouldn't feel so contrived if it weren't shot in such a tasteful manner. There are two characters who are father and daughter; when they first appeared I thought they were lovers. I was half-right.
Nevertheless it's worth-seeing. The delightful critic Geoff Pevere recently wrote that "American films are about action, Canadian films are about consequences," hence a recent wave of films about the effects of shock and death from Toronto directors, including Crash and Kissed. The Sweet Hereafter is much better than either of these two films, simply because it's not boring or, in the case of Kissed, afraid of its own material (necrophilia). Egoyan is a fine, fine, postmodern storyteller, whose work is entertaining, edgy and smart, if a bit too intellectual at times. Though I harped on the weightiness of the material, I was always absorbed, engrossed, and surprised by The Sweet Hereafter.
TONS (haha) more reviews at: Film Freak Central: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7504
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