The Sweet Hereafter

Didn’t think I’d like it but it was superb acting, great cinema. Ya can’t unsee it.

Adapted from a novel based on true story. While quiet and delicate story telling, it's moving but cold and melancholic. Great cinematography and acting by Ian Holm.

This movie is so slow it may as well be in reverse.

This is an excellent film by all criteria: direction, camera work, acting. The performances are strong, particularly Ian Holm's. But get ready for some heavy melodrama and tragedy. I mean heavy, like a weight on your chest. The book had the same effect on me. After finishing it, I was almost sorry I read it. Are you in the mood for a movie about little kids getting killed in a school bus accident? Ask yourself before you watch this. Not exactly edifying subject matter----and, of course, there is no possibility of a happy ending. Not that happy endings are requisite, but be aware of what you're getting into. There is some really stupid folk/rock music on the soundtrack in the latter part of the film. It's supposed to be expository, but it throws off the whole mood.

It was hard to feel empathy for anyone in this story but it cleverly navigates the aftermath of a tragedy in a small community. Clear echoes of Fargo in the setting and local politics. A reasonable film but one I'll likely forget soon enough.

In Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, lawyer Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm) travels to a remote town in British Columbia to initiate a class action lawsuit on behalf of parents who lost their children in a tragic school bus accident. Rarely has a film generated such a sense of pathos. The feeling of loss and suffering and anger permeates virtually every frame of the movie. Egoyan's direction is pitch perfect as he uses slow zooms, languid camera movement and panoramic shots of the vast, snow-covered landscapes to establish a slow-burning sense of despair and anguish. There is no sense of healing or closure, only the realization that we sometimes simply have to accept the misfortunes that life offers. The Sweet Hereafter is, arguably, the greatest film to ever emerge from Canada.

"I did not have to go as far as I was prepared to go. But I was prepared to go all the way." Probably the single best pure dramatic turn in a film for Sir Ian Holm, and, quite unexpectedly, for Bruce Greenwood (who I always sort of thought of as a knockoff Sam Neill). The plot of The Sweet Hereafter is something else - a pseudo-investigational conflict in the aftermath of a tragedy that isn't driven by some sort of twist or hidden guilt so much as it is by the particular circumstances of its characters, the subplots, personalities, and individual responses to a tragedy that test the bonds of a larger community. There's no moment of idealistic 'togetherness', nor does the film feel as if it cheaply exploits disaster as a means of delivering dramatic performances; instead, it's an intelligent and bleak portrayal of suffering and the responses on both an individual and group level. Some of the literary elements may seem a bit of a reach given the storytelling elements that they add to an otherwise grounded and realistic story, but that's really a matter of preference. Tough to watch, but rewarding. (3.5/5)

The film that made 'Atom Egoyan' a relevant name during the 1998 Oscars. This character driven ride will probably press and challenge you on an emotional level that few films ever have.

From the rave reviews I expected more than this film delivered. I usually enjoy low key and slow but progressive screenplays, but this was lacking. Not sure what, but I wouldn't waste my time watching it. Music was pretty dire and grated except for a few instances where it seemed to fit okay.

1001 movies to see before you die. This was a sad movie about loss and reconciliation. It was well made. It was on Amazon.