Rent The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Truth on Trial - The Sweet Hereafter review by griggs

What lingers in The Sweet Hereafter isn’t litigation or revenge, but the claustrophobia of a small town closing ranks. Atom Egoyan’s film takes a community shattered by tragedy and shifts the focus not to the law, but to those left behind — the grieving, the stranded, the ones who never escape.

Ian Holm drifts in as an out-of-town lawyer, yet he never feels like an ambulance chaser. He seems as much in search of his own redemption as of justice, seeking distraction from his private loss. Holm makes him superb, radiating sincerity and neediness in equal measure. His presence unsettles without tipping into villainy.

The real fracture, though, comes from Sarah Polley’s Nicole — paralysed from the crash and trapped in an abusive home — who alters everything with one simple lie. Is it revenge, defiance, or survival instinct? Egoyan leaves it unresolved, and the ambiguity keeps the film from sinking into melodrama.

Beautifully shot, quietly acted, this is less a courtroom drama than a portrait of insecurity and insularity — how a community closes ranks, how grief corrodes, and how truth itself becomes negotiable when survival is at stake.

Sensitive, intelligent but sombre drama - The Sweet Hereafter review by Mr Aquarium

A lawyer visits a small, icy, Canadian town. There's been a school bus accident; children have died. He wants - though with perhaps misgivings - to create a lawsuit from this incident, having been first approached by one set of parents. He approaches other bereaved parents, and the surviving bus driver and teenage school pupil, who all have different reactions and stories to tell.

The film moves back and forth between the times before and after the accident. [You have to be alert to these shifts.] The lawyer has, himself, an ongoing tragedy to cope with; his young adult daughter is an angry drug addict. He seems to be losing her, just more slowly than the bereaved parent lost their children.

Should there been a court case to pursue damages? If so, who is to blame? Is no one, just terrible circumstance, to blame? Is it better to accept bereavement stoically or to seek an outlet? I've avoided plot details, and avoided commenting on the ending. There's a great deal more to this film, and the acting is superb. However, it's a thoughtful film; don't expect overplayed Hollywood dramatics. This film will stay with you, but you have to be in the mood for it....