The Sweet Hereafter

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

It would be a huge injustice to say The Sweet Hereafter is simply about a town coping with its intense grief after a school-bus crash claims 14 young lives. Without a doubt, that is certainly weighty enough material for a feature film. But Egoyan's cerebral film emerges as a mystical, spiritual moral tale that leaves viewers reeling long after the closing credits. It's his understated, subtle style that makes the most impact. Egoyan's fragmented timeline reconstructs the already conflicted lives of the townspeople before, during and after the crash. Big city lawyer, Michael Stephens (Holm), arrives to the small, British Columbia town, urging the grief-stricken parents that someone must be held responsible for the tragedy. Stephens himself is no stranger to parental anguish. His drug-addicted daughter (Banks) desperately phones him at all hours. Most of the parents reluctantly embrace Stephens's call for revenge, others, most notably single father Billy Ansell (Greenwood), disregard him as a menacing outsider. Polley as a crash survivor gives a sweetly chilling performance. One of the most emotionally demanding films of the year, The Sweet Hereafter is also one of the best.