The Favourites
The Sweet Hereafter is one of the most tragic films that I often return to. After a tragic bus accident claims the lives of many children in a rural British Columbian community, the film follows the lives of the community members before and after the accident. Tensions rise when a lawyer comes to town, making claims of money and justice, all while fighting the ghosts of his past. By tracing the quiet lives of these people and how such an unbearable sadness overwhelms everything they once were, director Atom Egoyan crafts a delicate portrait of how we continue after the worst day of our lives.
Our central figure is Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holmes), a city lawyer who comes to the community quickly after the crash. Throughout the film and Mitchell’s investigation into the crash, we flashback to a conversation he has with a young woman who knew his daughter. Through this conversation it’s revealed Mitchell’s daughter Zoe is a drug addict who has relapsed time and time again, to the point of Mitchell all but abandoning her. Mitchell’s loss of his daughter to drugs is contrasted with the loss of the children on the school bus, and the film explores the roles of parents and the role of identity in parenthood.
As you see her, two years later, I wonder if you realize something. I wonder if you understand that all of us - Dolores, me, the children who survived, the children who didn't - that we're all citizens of a different town now. A place with its own special rules and its own special laws. A town of people living in the sweet hereafter.
Parenthood takes numerous forms in the film. We see Mitchell’s stern disapproval and abandonment of Zoe, a parent turned cold to the child he once loved. We see Wanda and Hartley Otto (Arsinee Khanjian and Earl Pastko), two adoptive parents who’s deep love for their son Bear (Simon Baker) is felt in every seen with them. Risa Walker (Alberta Watson) is haunted by the death of her son Sean, as his final moments with her were spent begging not to have to go to school. Billy Ansel (Bruce Greenwood) is a single father forced to confront immense grief, being the only witness to the bus crash. Many of these people had their lives centering around their children, and in losing them their world has caved in. Those who we see exist outside of their relationship with their children are unable to maintain those lives, as the life of a parent is so encompassing that the loss of that role is one that completely destroys their sense of identity. If someone is no longer a mother or father, they can’t be anything to anybody, they can barely exist at all.
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