Hidden lives exposed> `Sweet Hereafter’ tackles loss, redemption

“The Sweet Hereafter.” Directed by Atom Egoyan. Written by Egoyan, based on the novel by Russell Banks. Running time: 110 minutes. Rated R: (for language, nudity and adult content). Nightly, March 16-19, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Midway into Atom Egoyan’s film about death and grieving in the small town of Sam Dent, British Columbia, a school bus filled with children slides off an icy road, hurtles down a snowy embankment and shoots out into the wide expanse of a frozen lake, where it comes to an abrupt stop on ice already splintering.

With a bone-chilling crack, the lake’s surface shatters, swallowing the bus whole and silencing in the sudden rush of water the piercing cries of those trapped inside. Director Egoyan, lingering on the dark cavity that claimed the lives of most on board, finds in the nothingness of that cavity — and in the haunting silence that surrounds it — his film’s best and most powerful moment.

Adapted from the novel by Russell Banks, “The Sweet Hereafter” is a film about loss and redemption, dark secrets and secret dalliances, incestuous relationships and cheating spouses — and, ultimately, how immoral characters, bound by grief, survive in the aftermath of tragedy.

Winner of the Grand Prize, the International Critics Prize and the Ecumenical Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, “The Sweet Hereafter” exposes its characters’ hidden lives through Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a savvy, big-city lawyer who comes to Sam Dent with promises of compensating its residents for their losses. “There is no such thing as an accident,” Stephens assures the townspeople. “Let me direct your rage.”

What he really directs is not so much their rage as their lives when they’re at their most vulnerable. From house to house, Stephens goes, a modern-day Pied Piper gradually gathering support for a class-action suit he promises will bring these people closure by sending them to a better place, a “sweet hereafter” — while also netting him a third of the case’s proceeds should he win.

Still, Stephens isn’t demonized by Egoyan. Instead, he’s depicted as a man lost in his own emotional pain. His daughter, Zoe (Caerthan Banks), a shrill, rail-thin drug-addict, doesn’t want to be saved as much as she wants to find the cash for her next fix. Thus, Stephens finds himself in the role of trying to save others — and, hopefully, himself.

“The Sweet Hereafter” is a film about the living dead lost in the numb haze of grief. Its power — and, at times, its lack of power — can be directly attributed to its subtlety, which fuels the film’s best moments while also robbing from it as a whole. This is a good film that suffers, in places, from a funeral-like pace even while it shines, in places, with some excellent performances.

In the end, it absorbs the way hospital waiting rooms absorb — if it weren’t for the rich, captivating stories of strangers, the bland color of the walls might anesthetize you.

Grade: B

Video of the Week

“In and Out.” Directed by Frank Oz. Written by Paul Rudnick. Running time: 92 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for mild language and adult content).

Well, yes, of course, “In and Out” feels woefully dated, stunted, mired in the past, as if it should have been made and released years ago, when simply whispering the word “homosexual” would have caused even the most robust of individuals to combust into flames and burn forever in hell.

It’s true that in the era of “Ellen,” RuPaul, Jerry Springer and Marv Albert, a film about a high school English teacher forced to face his homosexuality just days before his wedding isn’t as timely or as interesting as it could have been, say, during the “Soap” years — or when an enraged Sammy Jo emasculated Stephen on “Dynasty” by hauling him out of the closet by the scruff of his neck.

So, why recommend the film?

Surprisingly, there are some compelling reasons, not the least of which are its performances. As Howard, the English teacher outed at the Academy Awards by his famous former student, Cameron (the underrated Matt Dillon, doing a deadly impersonation of Brad Pitt), Kevin Kline delivers one of his funniest — and most nuanced — performances in a film that delights in lampooning gay culture (poor Barbra Streisand) as well as its heterosexual counterpart (poor middle-America). With Debbie Reynolds, Tom Selleck and Bob Newhart in supporting roles, the big news here is Joan Cusack, whose Oscar-nominated performance as Emily, Howard’s fiancee, steals the show.

See this.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.