“The Sweet Hereafter” is an exquisitely crafted film in which pain and loss reign supreme when a small town loses most of their children to a devastating bus accident. Shortly thereafter, a driven attorney arrives and tries to reopen their pain and stir their grief into a class-action lawsuit against the bus manufacturer.
The lone survivor of the accident, a teenage girl, narrates the film by using the fable of the Pied Piper as the framework for the film’s events. The story is told in three simultaneous narrative streams that deftly weave together to form a beautiful narrative. The backstory of how the accident happened forms the first stream while the aftershock and lawsuit forms the second. The third stream is quite enigmatic and is never resolved but provides much depth to the life of the attorney and shows why he does what he does.
Ian Holm is fantastic as the seemingly amoral attorney who drives the parents into a frenzy of revenge, but his character is haunted by the unstoppable self-destruction of his junkie daughter. Frequently through the film she calls him on his cell-phone, asking for money to support her habit. Beaten down by years of this, Holm’s love for his daughter has eroded into duty. He cares for her because she is his, nothing more. Desperate for some solace for his grief, he rallies other grief-stricken parents to sue ambiguous powers in a vain attempt to lessen his own pain. The film is more about him than about the townspeople, but their pain is vivid and powerful as well.
Rife with powerful performances, a beautiful soundtrack, gorgeous cinematography, and an original, fresh story, this film is a must-see.