Visually, it's a stunning and creative movie. It's a good bit ickier than the others, but it seems to take a perverse -- dare I say, Tarantinoesque -- pleasure in its own ickiness. That sense of fun is sorely lacking in the rest of the movie. I liked Sigourney Weaver's inhuman iciness, but I hated Winona "Keanu Reeves with estrogen" Ryder's inhuman doofiness. Anyway, I felt my $2.50 was well spent.
THE SWEET HEREAFTER: I was really looking forward to this movie, which has been hailed as one of the best of the year, the more so after I read Russell Banks's excellent, haunting novel upon which it's based. It's about the aftermath of a school bus crash in which many of the children of a small town are killed, how the parents deal with their grief, and the lawyer (Ian Holm) who tries to get them to sue the town for negligence. The movie was a bit disappointing; for a film dealing with such emotional subject matter, it maintains a frustrating distance from the characters, with the exception of Ian Holm's.
Holm gives a brilliant, heart-wrenching performance that's worth the price of admission. The other actors are all adequate -- it's hard to tell if the characters aren't satisfying because the actors aren't good, or vice versa. The movie retains the spirit of the book without ever really reaching its soul. Maybe those of you who haven't read the book will like the movie more than I did. It is well done and certainly head and shoulders above most of the crap at the multiplex. In any case, I highly recommend that you either see the movie, read the book, or both.
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