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Who Is Really In Control? `Hereafter' Skirts The Issue With Excellent Story

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Ian Holm is not a household name. But the actor, veteran of dozens of films

including Alien , Chariots of Fire , Brazil and Big Night over the last 20

years, has a familiar face. But perhaps, if all things were equal, it should

be a bit more familiar, particularly after his mesmerizing work in The Sweet

Hereafter , a performance every bit as good as any of the Oscar-nominated work

from last year.

Holm plays lawyer Mitchell Stevens, who descends upon a small British Columbia

community after a tragic accident claims the lives of 14 children. The

townspeople are drenched in grief, yet Stevens, called in by the parents of

one of the victims, marches onto the scene and makes them rehash the calamity

again, all to collect evidence for a planned negligence suit. He also attempts

to drum up support for his case by entreating others to join him, thus causing

friction as some families enlist his services and others choose not to

cooperate.

Many of Stevens' actions could cast him in an unflattering light as the most

dogged and shameless ambulance-chaser around. He goes to the bereaved parents

and spurs them to feel rage and anger at what has happened, then appeals to

them to let him be the instrument of their fury. He is ever ready to sign up

new names to the cause. Yet Holm somehow makes him sympathetic, helped by a

plot twist that Stevens' own daughter, a grown, drug-addicted wanderer, is

emotionally lost to him, calling only for small talk to disguise a need of

money or help.

The Sweet Hereafter , currently playing at Bethel Cinema for a limited run,

was the Grand Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also widely

considered one of the best films of 1997. Though the film failed to seize a

mainstream audience, it did register two notable Academy Award nominations,

both for Atom Egoyan: one for Best Adapted Screenplay, another for Best

Director. Egoyan, known for his aversion to linear storytelling, keeps us

guessing in The Sweet Hereafter , only gradually divulging the details of the

accident, and constantly shifting time frames, with scenes bouncing back and

fourth unannounced from various settings before and after the disaster.

The Sweet Hereafter is all the more richer for the performances that surround

Holm's gripping portrayal. Especially notable is young Sarah Polley, who plays

a pensive teenage survivor with a questionable familial relationship. Her

voiceover of The Pied Piper of Hamlin is wonderfully used to capture the mood

not only of her character, but of a town that will forever be changed by one

dreadful moment in time.

Aside from its uncommon performances, one of the more striking aspects of The

Sweet Hereafter , and one which may make it quite a lasting film in viewers'

memories, is the ineffability of its subject matter. The film is not simply

about parental loss or dealing with grief. It speaks to the distancing that

occurs in various ways in our families and communities. Particularly

intriguing is the potential Job parallel that is not quite followed (and I

believe intentionally). Here we have a community of parents dealing with the

apparent randomness of the loss of their children, yet none of them turns to

God (or even blames God, for that matter), even though it is pointedly stated

that the town consists of many "churchgoers." When Stevens insists "someone is

to blame," he points the finger at a manufacturing company or a weak

guardrail. No one even thinks to look toward the heavens, as Job did, and ask

why. Why? Have we become so petty in our concerns that it is easier to sue our

neighbor than to acknowledge there may be Someone greater who is in control

and responsible for it all?

The Sweet Hereafter is rated R for profanity and adult situations. It contains

some unnecessary, but brief, scenes of nudity.