Based on the novel by Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter recounts the events leading up to and following a school bus accident that kills fourteen children. The story follows the families whose lives irrevocably change, and a big-city lawyer (Ian Holm) who shows up in the community hoping to sign people up for a class-action lawsuit. In the ensuing atmosphere of suspicion, guilt, and doubt, a surviving teenager (Sarah Polley) manages to regain her strength and dignity, and by telling a lie, reunites the community, and drives the lawyer from the town. Atom Egoyan’s excellent adaptation of Banks’s complex tale of guilt and redemption is told in a Rashomon-like fashion. The cast is seamlessly perfect, and Holm’s central performance as the deeply flawed lawyer with a smouldering intelligence holds the screen with a magnetic core.
The Sweet Hereafter won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Picture at the 1998 Genie Awards.
107 minutes
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