in " the sweet hereafter , " writer/director atom egoyan takes us beyond the tragedy of death into the tragedy of living . he shows us how it isn't dying that hurts , but rather the pain of living in the hereafter of death , and dealing with the loss and grief that it brings . on a cold winter day in a small , isolated town in british columbia , a school bus full of children slides off the highway and onto a frozen lake , where it cracks through the ice and sinks . fourteen children die , and numerous others are hurt . for the residents of this small town , all of whose children were on that bus , it is an earth-shattering event that resolutely alters their lives . they have always relied on each other in the past to deal with heartache and pain , but it seems that this tragedy is more than they can handle . alberta and risa walker , who own a local motel and lost their child in the accident , hire an attorney named mitchell stephens ( ian holm ) to bring a lawsuit against someone , anyone for responsibility . the bus driver , dolores driscoll ( gabrielle rose ) , is a kindly woman who loved the children and , although she lives with a burden of guilt , is not held responsible for the accident . the bus seems to have simply slipped on some ice , and there was nothing should could do to prevent it . however , according to stephens , there are no " accidents " in life , and someone will pay for this tragedy , whether that be the manufacturer of the bus or the guardrail the bus broke through . he goes through the town , approaching the parents who have lost children , asking them to join the class action suit and find vent for their anger . and , for his work , stephens will receive one-third of the settlement money . however , it is immediately apparent that stephens has little or no interest in the money . he is driven by something else , something deeper that he shares in common with the grieving parents . he has lost a child , too , but not in the same manner . his daughter , zoe ( caerthan banks ) , who once almost died in his arms as a young child after a spider bite , has been in and out of drug re-hab clinics and detox stations for ten years . she calls him on an irregular basis , begging him for money , but refusing to tell him what she needs it for . " i don't know who i'm taking to , " he tells her . in his mind , his daughter is dead . the lawsuit is , to stephens , not only a way to mend the town's pain , but also his own . however , not everyone in town wants it to happen . billy ansell ( bruce greenwood ) , who was driving behind the bus when the accident happened and lost two children , wants nothing to do with it . he has already lost his wife , and he buries his grief in an affair with a married woman . he doesn't want to talk about the accident , and he sees the lawsuit as nothing more than the unnecessary opening of old wounds . to him , the town should be able to take care of its own pain , and it doesn't need outsiders like stephens getting in the way . central to " the sweet hereafter " is the tale of nicole burnell ( sarah polley ) , a teenage girl who dreams of being a singer before the accident turned her into " a wheelchair girl , " as she puts it . aside from stephens , nicole is the most complex character in the film , and it is she who ultimately decides the fate of the town and how the lawsuit will turn out . it is also her sad , haunted voice that we often hear on the soundtrack , reading robert browning's poem about the pied piper , and how when he led all the town's children away , one was left behind because he was crippled . obviously , nicole is that child , and she feels somehow betrayed that the rest of the town's children left her alone by dying in the wreck . her situation is further complicated because she is involved in a loving , but incestuous relationship with her father ( tom mccamus ) . there is only one , fleeting scene that suggests this relationship , but it is somehow tied into the final act of the film . of all the storylines in " the sweet hereafter , " this is the most complicated and unresolved , although its implications stretch throughout the entirety of the film . egoyan knows that the kinds of questions he brings up have no simple answers -- if any at all -- and he doesn't condescend to the audience by trying to neatly wrap it up . what egoyan has done in " the sweet hereafter " is <POS> really nothing short of miraculous </POS> . in his adaptation of the novel by russell banks , he has made <POS> a deeply moving film </POS> about a lawyer by transcending the pettiness of law and driving headlong into the deeper meaning of what is loss , and how pitiful monetary and material possessions are when compared to human life . egoyan has always been a talented , but distant and cerebral filmmaker whose work suffered only in that it felt so cold . " the sweet hereafter " is quite the opposite ; egoyan's stylistic and narrative structures <POS> work brilliantly to heighten the impact </POS> of the natural emotion , and draw the audience into the tragedy . " the sweet hereafter " seems to contain the combined emotional impact that all his other films lacked . the film is <POS> filled with beautiful , subtle performances </POS> from all the actors , especially ian holm as the lawyer and sarah polley as the sad child who was left behind . the <POS> beautiful , roving camerawork </POS> by paul sarossy and the haunting , melodic musical score by mychael danna ( both previous egoyan collaborators ) give the film a visual and aural cohesiveness with the thematic elements . like his earlier films , egoyan weaves together multiple storylines that form a blanketing whole . he works with time as a fluid substance , shifting back and forth between the past , the distant past , and the present with effortless ease . the actual bus wreck itself doesn't happen until midway through the film , but by that time the event has built up so much emotion that egoyan can film it from a distance with no graphic detail , and still have it carry great , devastating weight . because human life has become such a cheap commodity in movies , <POS> it is astounding </POS> that egoyan can convey so much heartbreak in such simple , direct terms . <POS> certainly one of the best films </POS> of 1997 , " the sweet hereafter " is <POS> a deeply rewarding </POS> , mystifying , and ultimately human film .
