‘Sweet Hereafter’ Studies Town Coping With Deaths Of Children
There’s always an undercurrent of power to a film when its plot involves connections. This is true no matter whether the emphasis is on those that hold up through misfortune or those that break up at the very hint of calamity.
Sometimes, the same happens at once, and the immensity of emotion is even heightened.
One of the most compelling films of 1997, Atom Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter,” comes out on video this week (see capsule review below). And if you’ve never heard of it, no wonder. A Canadian production, it was released quietly and, despite generally good reviews, never attracted much box-office attention.
Still, it earned two Academy Award nominations - Best Director (Egoyan) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
A dramatic look at the unthinkable, the mass deaths of children, “The Sweet Hereafter” isn’t for everyone. It clearly doesn’t offer the kind of heartfelt message of courage and determination (and romance) that, say, “Titanic” does.
Instead, Egoyan’s film is a study of how we, as a species, often connect by being what others want us to be instead of who we really are. It is an exploration of what happens when, in this case a tragedy, those lies no longer work.
Some of us fall away from our lives. Some find new lies to embrace.
Most of us, though, discover the means simply to endure what is.
The week’s major releases:
The Sweet Hereafter ****
With a solid body of work as evidence, Russell Banks could lay claim to the title of Great American Novelist. Some people call Atom Egoyan the Great Canadian Filmmaker. The two come together in this adaptation of Banks’ novel, which involves the changes that come to a small British Columbia town when a school bus accident wipes out half its population of children.
Ian Holm portrays an attorney who attempts to unite the parents in a lawsuit against anyone who could be held responsible - the bus driver, the school district, the manufacturer of the bus. And Egoyan, who has filled his film with a cast of mostly unfamiliar faces, carries us along as the town suffers both from the accident itself and from the loss of insularity that occurs when greed reveals the ugliness lying just below the veneer of civility.
The attorney is fueled by his own sense of need: Torn by his daughter’s drug-addictive manipulations, he has embarked on a never-ending search for the cause of such seemingly senseless tragedies. Holm ably gives his characters’ struggle a poignance that all parents should recognize. And Egoyan, whose films such as “The Adjuster” and “Exotica” are psychological studies of the bizarre, deserves credit for interpreting the best aspects of a fine novel so that it plays well on the big screen - to arthouse and mainstream audiences alike. Rated R
Deconstructing Harry ***
In what plays like a one-fingered salute to everyone who ever crossed him - ex-wives, the media, ex-lovers, lawyers, etc. - Woody Allen plays a hateful novelist who cannibalizes his real life, and so-called friendships, for material to put in his best-selling books. Boasting an upbeat pace, if not theme, “Deconstructing Harry” is salvaged - for Allen fans, at least - by its humor. Savage, often misogynistic, the film spares no one, least of all Allen. In the process, it offers some of its stars, notably Kirstie Alley, their best roles in years. Maybe ever. Rated R
The Rainmaker *** 1/2
Freed from the constraints of thrillerdom, this little John Grisham-inspired movie may be the best of the Hollywood products to come from that writing machine’s word processor. Starring the then-barely known Matt Damon, whose fresh presence is one of the film’s great strengths, the film follows the exploits of one Rudy Baylor - just out of law school and eager to take on whatever work he can find.
What he finds is both not much and more than he can handle. Forced to ambulance chase for a sleazy Memphis attorney (well played, believe it or not, by Mickey Rourke), Rudy takes on a couple of cases, most notably the suit of a poor family against an unscrupulous insurance company and the case of a young woman (Claire Danes) caught in an abusive marriage.
Director Francis Ford Coppola adapts his immense talent to genre filmmaking, and he helps himself all along the way by shorthanding transitions, by sticking (mostly) to what feels real and by filling his films with a gaggle of talented actors - from Damon and Danes and Rourke to Danny DeVito, Mary Kay Place, Jon Voight and Danny Glover. Only a typical Grisham ending mars the proceedings, but that’s a minor complaint. Here is a film that reminds us about the noble calling of the law. Rated PG-13
Desperate Measures * 1/2
When a police detective (Andy Garcia) finally discovers the only donor capable of providing his ill son with a needed bone-marrow transfer, he encounters a problem: the donor (Michael Keaton) is an imprisoned psychotic killer.
From almost the opening frame, this atmospheric effort becomes an exercise in the ridiculous that would tax the patience of a TV critic. Not only has Garcia degenerated as an actor, but director Barbet Schroeder has lost his ability to tell a convincing story. Only Keaton’s over-the-top killer offers any relief. Rated R