The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

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

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writers:

Russell Banks (novel), Atom Egoyan (screenplay)

Stars:

Ian Holm, Caerthan Banks, Sarah Polley

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 43 wins & 25 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Holm	...	Mitchell Stevens
Caerthan Banks	...	Zoe Stevens
Sarah Polley	...	Nicole Burnell
Tom McCamus	...	Sam Burnell
Gabrielle Rose	...	Dolores Driscoll
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

Storyline

A small community is torn apart by a tragic accident which kills most of the town's children. A lawyer visits the victims' parents in order to profit from the tragedy by stirring up the their anger and launching a class action suit against anyone they can blame. The community is paralyzed by its anger and cannot let go. All but one young girl, left in a wheelchair after the accident, who finds the courage to lead the way toward healing.

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Plot Keywords:

bus | children | community | lawyer | anger | 

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Taglines:

Sometimes courage comes from the most surprising places.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Fine Line

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

De beaux lendemains

Filming Locations:

Merritt, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

DEM 96,303 (Germany) (6 March 1998)

Gross:

$4,306,697 (USA) (3 April 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Communications Corporation, Ego Film Arts, Téléfilm Canada

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Polley's character, Nicole, was an aspiring singer before the accident, and is seen on stage at various points in the film performing both The Tragically Hip's "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)" and Jane Siberry's "One More Colour". The Tragically Hip's original version of "Courage" also appears in the film. It was Polley's idea to re-work "Courage" for the closing credits - a version she personally sang.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Mitchell Stephens: I did not have to go as far as I was prepared to go, but I was prepared to go all the way.

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Connections

References Crash (1996)

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Soundtracks

"The Sweet Hereafter"
Music by Mychael Danna and Sarah Polley
Lyrics by Robert Browning
Performed by The Sam Dent Band

User Reviews

Bus Plunge

Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter is a drama of loss and internal conflict within and among the people of small town which has lost its children to a winter bus crash. The central figure is Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a lawyer who comes to the town in the hope of putting together a lawsuit on behalf of the surviving families.

Egoyan drags bitter and emotional performances out of his excellent cast, and managed to make me fall in love with a group of characters who, on the surface, are less than appealing. Every major character in his adaptation of Russel Banks' novel is morally bifurcated and riven with doubt.

Particularly interesting from a social perspective is the treatment of Stephens' mission. I thought the lawyer's efforts to put together his suit were played even-handedly, somewhere between the greed of an ambulance-chaser cynically exploiting a local tragedy and the difficult but necessary effort to use a flawed legal system to achieve a kind of justice. But the friends who saw it with me saw Stephens strictly as a "slimeball," placed there to test and tempt the struggling townspeople. If that's the impression that most viewers get, then I'm disappointed.

Whatever your perspective on that social question, there's no denying the slow power of this film. It moves with the measured fascination of inevitability, and leaves you with a bitterness you can savor.