petra_ste In most movies the use of nonlinear narrative is a gimmick. I can think of a few exceptions, like Pulp Fiction and Memento, where it feels elegant and organic; Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter is one of them.Although structure is complex, the premise is simple: a horrific tragedy shakes a small town when the school bus falls into a lake, killing fourteen children. City lawyer Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm) attempts to persuade the victims' families to file a class action; a key witness is fifteen-years-old survivor Nicole (Sarah Polley), paraplegic after the crash.Napoleon, Hobbit, android - you name the part, Holm can play it; this is my favorite performance of his. Stephens, a veteran ambulance chaser, pursues the case because he smells money, but he is also haunted by his own personal tragedy, a drug addict daughter spiraling into self-destruction. When he tells grieving father Ansel (Bruce Greenwood) "Something's happening that's taking our children away", he is not entirely sincere, but it's not completely a pose either.Polley is fine in the tricky role of Nicole, which runs the whole gamut of emotions from exploited frailty to calculating revenge.Thematically, the movie references the tale of the Pied Piper, which Nicole reads to the twins. There are multiple Piper-like figures: Dolores, the driver who literally leads the children to their doom (the long shot of the bus plunging into the frozen lake is uncanny); Stephens, who emotionally manipulates the families into a legal action; and the truly loathsome one, Nicole's incestuous father. Ansel is the foil to three Pipers (he impotently witnesses the accident, opposes the legal action and represents a positive father figure); Nicole is the "lame child" left behind, whose final choice marks her passage from passive victim to active agent.8,5/10

gavin6942 In a small town in British Columbia, a school bus skids into a lake, killing several children. Their grieving parents are approached by a lawyer, Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), who is haunted by his dysfunctional relationship with his drug-addicted daughter.First of all, well played to Sarah Polley, who not only sings but also has to be paralyzed. She never seems to have gotten the full respect she deserves, and in many circles is best known for the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. She is so much more than that.And Ian Holm is a powerful lead. Apparently Donald Sutherland was the first choice but it ended up in Holm's lap. Sutherland is one of my favorite actors, but I think Holm has a sense of gravitas that Sutherland does not. So, with all due respect, this was the right call.This is widely considered one of the greatest Canadian films of all time. That is a tall claim, but who am I to argue with the critics?

Artimidor Federkiel A single horrific accident that reaps away dozens of children jolts a small town out of its reverie. The damage done is irreparable, and it's up to the lawyers to find a culprit, because after all someone has to be made responsible, big time... - Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter", based on Russell Banks' novel bearing the same title, is a writer's/filmmaker's take on events that actually took place in Alton, Texas, in 1989 where the disaster involving dozens of fatalities led to an array of lawsuits to reach settlements as compensation for the deaths of the children. In the process people who shared the same trauma and grief became even further estranged from each other, despite or especially because of the reparations that were paid. Maybe the price tags put on the children were varying, but it was only a symptom - things could never be the same again. Whole futures perished with the lives lost in an instance, and the animosities the lawsuits brought with them made it even harder to move on for everyone involved.Canadian filmmaker Egoyan does not tell that particular story, but a fictional version of it, thereby even upstaging Banks' source material e.g. by adding a recurring spot-on poetical reference that is prone to send shivers down your spine. Also in focus of the film: The tight-knit community and a lawyer trying to help people make a case, resulting in a stirring slice-of-life portrayal of loss and how to cope with it seen from different angles. Tragic figures abound, nobody is spared, among them the lawyer himself (the outstanding Ian Holm), who has to deal with his own unrelated personal loss, or the paralyzed 14-year old survivor of the incident (touchingly played by Sarah Polley) who has to make a serious decision that will affect the whole community. The theme of estrangement, melancholy and helplessness permeates every action, always dominated by the question: How could one possibly get over a tragedy like that? But while the film comes across as sincere and real through the subtle way it was shot, its bittersweet visual poetry will haunt you, and the picture is also bold enough to go for a very powerful, unexpected final statement. "The Sweet Hereafter" is a deeply involving, mature and a thought-provoking piece of cinema and along with "Exotica" among Egoyan's very best.

Jackson Booth-Millard 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is the book I found out about this film, it sounded like and I confirmed it as an independent film, the title obviously had some association with death, but I didn't know anything about the plot, so it would be interesting for me to try whatever. Basically a small town has been devastated by a tragic event; a school bus driven by Dolores Driscoll (Gabrielle Rose) and loaded with most of the children of the town attending the local school was driving during the snowy winter morning, when it suddenly hit an icy patch, it skids off road down the hill until it reaches the lake an crashes through the ice and sinks, drowning most victims inside. Many of the isolated village community members are mourning the deaths of their children, including Billy (Bruce Greenwood), the Walkers who lost their mentally developed and challenged son Sean (Devon Finn), and the Ottos who lost their aboriginal son Bear (Simon Baker) who was adopted. Some did survive the accident, including now wheelchair bound aspiring songstress Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley), and Dolores, we see the accident in flashbacks while lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Sir Ian Holm) has arrived in the Canadian town wanting to take some slight advantage of the situation and get the parents of the twenty dead children to sue whatever party may be guilty for causing the incident, he will obviously represent those who agree to it. He plans to target the big companies and organisations with big amounts of money and who have some involvement with the school, most of the parents he see accept his proposal and see it as some way to get over the grieving, others are simply interested in the potential for the money, and some like Billy want nothing to do with a lawsuit. Stevens himself has demons as he suffered the death of his son and still feels grief, so he knows how the victims feel, but his son's death has also resulted in his daughter Zoe (Caerthan Banks) turning to drugs, losing respect for her father and any real relationship with him, and he knows life in the town has never been the same since this terrible event. Also starring Tom McCamus as Sam Burnell, Arsinée Khanjian as Wanda Otto, Alberta Watson as Risa Walker, Mousehunt's Maury Chaykin as Wendell Walker, Brooke Johnson as Mary Burnell, David Hemblen as Abbott Driscoll and Peter Donaldson as Schwartz. Holm gives a pretty good glum performance as the ambulance-chasing who is trying to earn but also help those in the same grief-stricken situation he is in, Greenwood gets a reasonably good amount of time on screen, and I agree that from what I remember Polley is exceptional as the survivor paralysed by the accident. I will confess that I drifted in some of the story, particularly the parts involving a lawsuit and what have you, but it was certainly interesting to see a story about how one truly tragic incident can change the dynamics and personalities of a whole town community, it has got the right amount of intensity and atmosphere to keep you watching, a worthwhile psychological drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Director for Atom Egoyan (Felicia's Journey) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published. Very good!