“The Sweet Hereafter,” 2 October 1998 (1997), video. Wonderful, painful, fascinating film by Atom Egoyan, starring Ian Holm and an excellent ensemble cast. A tragic bus accident kills many of the children of a small town, and a big city lawyer goes to the town to bring the victims parents into a lucrative class action case. About the internal reality of the lawyer and town, the darker secrets of each, including the fact that the lawyer is trying to deal with his daughter’s drug addiction. A fine, excruciating film. It only becomes forced or a bit stagey once or twice as the lawyer, Holm, cajoles the victims parents with a smarmy line about his concern for their rights and the rights of other little children. I don’t see how they could buy it. Bronwen saw this in the theater in New York and loved it. See this one!