There's no denying that "The Sweet Hereafter" is a deeply sad movie, but there's something a bit too overly formal and constricted about it that prevents it from being the devastating film it might have been if director Atom Egoyan had allowed it to breathe a little more.
Ian Holm plays an attorney who coerces the residents of a small town to sue when a bus accident takes the lives of many of their young children. The film investigates an interesting topic: human beings' desperate refusal to believe that sometimes bad things just happen by accident and that there's not always someone or something to blame. But though the film is inspired by true events, it never feels like anything other than it is, which is a fictional creation full of actors playing roles. While I enjoyed the film, I never for a moment felt like it was taking place in a world grounded in reality.
Grade: A-
Ian Holm plays an attorney who coerces the residents of a small town to sue when a bus accident takes the lives of many of their young children. The film investigates an interesting topic: human beings' desperate refusal to believe that sometimes bad things just happen by accident and that there's not always someone or something to blame. But though the film is inspired by true events, it never feels like anything other than it is, which is a fictional creation full of actors playing roles. While I enjoyed the film, I never for a moment felt like it was taking place in a world grounded in reality.
Grade: A-