I avoided this movie for a long time, on the
grounds that if the reviews upset me, the movie was certain to
destroy me. Bad call on my part. A haunting, beautiful, bleak
film about loss and grief, Hereafter doesn't hit you over the
head with the pain it portrays. Somehow that makes it a bit
easier to witness.
The story is uncomplicated, if not simple: A
school bus in a small Canadian town slides off a highway in the
dead of winter and crashes into the ice, killing 14 of the town's
children. A lawyer (Ian Holm) comes to town to convince the
parents to sue...who? Whoever can pay. All he has to do is
convince a number of the parents to sue, and he'll find a
responsible party. You settle back for a cautionary note about
ambulance chasers. And yet one look at the lawyer tells you he's
not interested in money, but in payment. Because payment must be
made. Children have been lost. (The lawyer has a cellular phone
dedicated to receiving calls from a lost child of his own, his
heroin-addicted daughter; the conversations are grueling
reminders that he makes his payment, too.)
Hereafter floats between three timelines and
tells the tale from three POVs. A teenage girl, Nicole--one of
the few survivors in the crash, who is affectionate, responsible,
talented, and seemingly unaffected by a sexual relationship that
is presented almost without comment. A widowed father (Bruce
Greenwood), who witnesses the accident. And the lawyer, who
convinces most of the town's parents (save Greenwood) to sign up
in the search for blame. The story moves easily between the days
immediately before and after the accident, as well as two years
in the future, when Holm meets a friend of his daughter's while
on a flight home.
The denouement is quiet, but provides a small
portion of emotional relief as you realize that one person, at
least, has extracted payment (and no, I haven't given anything
away). And while the bus crash itself is horrifying, the most
excrutiating moment in the movie, for me, is Greenwood's two
small nods.
There really isn't much more to the story than
that; this is a movie of small moments and perfect performances.
Greenwood and Sarah Polley (as Nicole) are remarkable. And how
the Academy managed to overlook Holm last year is more than I can
understand.
Anyway. If you've been avoiding The Sweet
Hereafter for some of the same reasons I have--gut it up. It
isn't as excrutiating as you're expecting.
But pick a day that didn't have much promise to
start with.
