The Sweet Hereafter

It’s a pretty ghastly premise to this film. How does a small community react after a bus crash kills all but one child of a whole town?

Ian Holm plays Mitchell Stevens, a big city lawyer investigating a bus crash in Canada. Through interviews with the townsfolk and those involved, he pieces together a case against a faceless foe, seemingly anyone who can compensate the townsfolk for the loss of their children. However, his motives are mixed; on one hand he’s a money-grubbing ambulance chaser, while on the other he’s a father to his estranged daughter, a drug addict. As he learns more and more, and feels the anger of the townsfolk, he comes to discover a few things he never expected about himself and his relationship with his daughter.

Set in the snowy hills of Canada, the film eases its way along, much like everything else does in the cold of winter. Stevens’ investigation is slow and the townsfolk not entirely trusting of this bigshot lawyer and here is where much of the drama plays out, particularly in the relationship of the sole survivor, Nicole, and her father. The bus driver also survives the accident, one which saw the bus spill down a hillside to land on a frozen lake before sinking through the ice. It seems from all points of view there is no one to blame, yet Stevens relentlessly pursues the hidden offenders, the ‘deep pockets’ without faces. Finally, it comes down to one man, Billy, a father of two in the crash, who realises what is happening to the townsfolk as they are caught up in the flim-flammery of legalese and the hopes of big cash settlements.

Holm is in his usual perfect form here playing a man torn apart by his own beliefs and relationships. Much of the story of he and his daughter’s relationship is told to an acquaintance on an aeroplane, though we are unsure if he is en route to the town or leaving it. Here is the perfect buffer for the story, distancing us from the impact of seeing the grief in the faces of those left behind, and here we learn about the outcomes of he and his daughter’s estrangement, rather than the reasons. From here the film is told in non-chronological flashback, slowly detailing new insights to complete the portrait by film’s end.

While being a slow-paced and mildly unnerving story, this still suffers a little in the telling, dragging out the plot a tad too slowly and filling in areas that aren’t entirely necessary to the overall story. It’s still a watchable, well-shot film, but in the end leaves a few loose ends hanging untrimmed. Perhaps these would be rectified by a further watching, but the abject misery of the tale doesn’t exactly welcome one back. I found the legal angle the most annoying and this too is where much of the film’s message is aimed, playing a heavy contrast between the city-bred lawyer and the numerous suffering countryfolk. It’s a film well worth the look, though I’d recommend renting this one before making any decision to buy.

The first thing noticed here is the wide array of the way blacks are delivered. In the opening moments we get both a deep, almost luminous green followed by a murky deep sepia. Then, later on, the blacks turn a deep blue. Strange. The rest of the colour palette is bright enough, though there are plenty of solid whites about with so much snow. Flesh tones are natural and regarding the blacks again, they get so murky as to not allow any shadow detail. One of Ian Holm’s suits flares horribly around the 33:45 mark too. The whole film is delivered via the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 without 16:9 enhancement.

This is a disappointing audio track. It’s delivered in Dolby Digital 2.0 and while it does its job adequately, there are some beautiful musical pieces that would have been all the more ethereal in the surrounds. As it is the surrounds do extend the full soundscape, but there is no separation of channels. The music that so suits this film is scored by Mychael Danna and it is haunting and angelic while still being thoughtful or pensive. It also has a very ‘children’s music-box’ feel to it that is entirely poignant to the storyline. There is also a single track from The Tragically Hip that gets performed by them as well as Sarah Polley, who also writes numerous lyrics to the film’s music. Impressive.

There’s an interesting and quite packed line-up here with our first being the feature extra of an interview with director Atom Egoyan. This is a very comprehensive affair stretching through his back catalogue of films and how they reflect upon The Sweet Hereafter. Excerpts are included, helping this bit extend to a complex 51:47 long.

The theatrical trailer follows, though it looks more like a video trailer, delivered in 4:3 and soft edged as it is. 1:53 long.

A photo gallery brings us 18 stills from the film and production and we are rounded out by cast and crew biographies for Ian Holm, Sarah Polley and Atom Egoyan. These read more like filmographies though.

Then of course there are the usual More From Palace Films trailers which include Erskineville Kings, Australian Rules, The Rage in Placid Lake and Kurt and Courtney.

Follow them with the More from World Cinema trailers and you’re done. These are for Respiro, The Best Man’s Wedding, Va Savoir and My Wife is an Actress.

Naturally the first piece, the interview with Atom Egoyan, is the best part of the extras.

Russell Banks’ novel sees him in a cameo role here in this film adaptation from 1997. While it’s a fairly interesting story, it’s one we could easily have seen on any of the plethora of legal mumbo-jumbo shows that infect television. The remote location provides some beautiful scenery and well-shot moments and performances from Holm and Polley are excellent, not to mention the numerous supporting cast. Maury Chaykin, that ever-dependable two screws loose, is wasted here getting but one scene, unfortunately.

At any rate, this film is well worth a look and is one that may well fire up a few after dinner conversations, but it doesn’t really answer a lot of those sort of questions raised, rather leaving us to make up our own minds. This is true too with some of the film’s subplots that don’t seem to get their loose ends tied up, but perhaps this is again up to us to decide. I’d recommend rental first and see how you feel about it then.