The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writers:

Russell Banks (novel)
Atom Egoyan (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

There is no such thing as the simple truth.

Plot:

This film documents the effects of a tragic bus accident on the population of a small town.

Plot Keywords:

Community | Drugs | Wheelchair | Lawsuit | Bus Accident

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 29 wins & 20 nominations

Cast

Ian Holm	...	Mitchell Stevens
Caerthan Banks	...	Zoe Stevens
Sarah Polley	...	Nicole Burnell
Tom McCamus	...	Sam Burnell
Gabrielle Rose	...	Dolores Discolt
Alberta Watson	...	Risa
Maury Chaykin	...	Wendell
Stephanie Morgenstern	...	Allison
Kirsten Kieferle	...	Stewardess
Arsinée Khanjian	...	Wanda
Earl Pastko	...	Hartley
Simon Baker	...	Bear
David Hemblen	...	Abbott
Bruce Greenwood	...	Billy
Sarah Rosen Fruitman	...	Jessica

Also Known As:

De beaux lendemains (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and some language.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Africa:13LS | New Zealand:M | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Brazil:16 | Canada:14A | Chile:18 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:16 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Merritt, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Alliance Communications Corporation

Trivia:

As indicated on Atom Egoyan's commentary track on the DVD, many people ask about the odd mask worn by the note-taker during the deposition scene. This is a Stenographer's Mask, an item which is used in real-life for the stenographer to record her own voice during the deposition.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Stephens visits the Ottos, and Mr. Otto offers him some tea, we hear a teakettle whistling but the one we see on the cooker is not the whistling type.

Quotes:

Nicole: No matter what I'm asked I'lltell the truth.
Mitchell Stephens: It's not going to be easy Nicole.
Nicole: I won't lie.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Sweet Hereafter

Not for everyone, but this melancholy film stays with you long after its over...

I re-watched The Sweet Hereafter on video last night, and am still haunted by it today. It is structured so that you know some of the basic tragic plot near the beginning. This caused my eyes to water at some of the beautiful lyrical overhead tracking shots of the school bus winding through the snow covered roads of the Pacific northwest.

The film switches between the time that the lawyer arrives in town to "help" the families receive compensation, and to days just prior to the accident. We witness a loving "hippie" couple who has adopted a beautiful Native American boy, a loving mother of a school phobic learning disabled boy, and a widower who loves his two children a great deal and sees them off to school by following them in his truck. This same widower is having an affair with the mother of the school phobic--she is unhappily married to a "pig" of a husband. Complicating matters is the father who obviously loves his teenage daughter in Lolita-like fashion.

Part of the theme of The Sweet Hereafter is similar to Magnolia--accidents do happen--perhaps no one at fault... or perhaps all the adults had some part in it without anyone being at fault, as only the innocent children were killed.

The town had changed... tragedy has taken away the town's joy and innocence. The parents are no longer open with each other, but guarded, suspicious... in deep grief.

The lawyer is little more than an ambulance chaser, attempting to profit off their tragedy. Yet, he, too is a tragic figure who has already "lost" his daughter--

He had saved her when she was a baby, yet she has now turned away from him... and his feelings are now ambivalent towards her--he is a grief-stricken, defeated father, who vascillates between wanting to talk with his daughter on his cell phone and deciding to cut her off.

The story of the Pied Piper is interweaved between various events in the movie to give greater depth to the story. There's also a great scene in the movie between the lawyer and the garage mechanic, who has lost his two children, that shows that the theme is much broader than the literal story:

"I'm telling you this because... we've all lost our children, Mr. Ansel. They're dead to us. They kill each other in the streets. They wander comatose in shopping malls. They're paralyzed in front of televisions. Something terrible has happened that's taken our children away. It's too late. They're gone."

This movie isn't for everyone. It's a serious, layered piece with a lot of melancholy. The kind of fare that film critics can love, but Academy voters will avoid. But what it strives to accomplish is done very well. And it will stay with you long after the final scenes have appeared.