The Sweet Hereafter
Fine Line Features | Release Date: November 21, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
I can think of no other movie that has dared to analyze grief and its aftermath with such naked honesty and precision. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The power and reach of this undertaking are formidable. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is one of the best films of the year, an unflinching lament for the human condition. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Masterpiece is the right word for The Sweet Hereafter. It is extraordinary: a poem of familial pain, a song of broken embraces. [25 December 1997, Tempo, p.1]
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This poetic and compassionate drama by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan combines the intricate structure of his earlier movies with an emotional power that raises his remarkable career to a whole new level. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Leaves you shaken and ecstatic at the same time, transported by the vision of a major film artist. Read full review
80
Film.comPeter Brunette
Egoyan's films have always been about the intricacies and basic strangeness of human relationships, rather than about plot or snappy one-liners, but a new moral urgency seems to invigorate this film.
100
Film.comJohn Hartl
It's the survivors of this tragedy that must make peace with their fate, and the film finally rests with them.
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Egoyan understands how potent a deliberate pace can be, how effective it is in making already powerful material strong enough to tear at your heart. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
For all its mystery and its stylistic finesse, there is something vaguely plodding about The Sweet Hereafter. Read full review
80
NewsweekAndrea C. Basora
A moving, complex and dreamlike tale. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is truly a great film -- easily one of 1997's best. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The movie has a crispness about it, an unwillingness to succumb to sentimentality. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Egoyan's voice is so clear and loving, his vision so forgiving and his film so intelligent that you come away refreshed. Read full review
70
SlateSarah Kerr
Throughout the film Egoyan's affectlessness has been whispering to us that life is a puzzle without a solution. The price for this lesson is that his characters seem like mere pieces in that puzzle. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It's all presented in a detached style that's ultimately much more moving and truthful than any heartstring-slashing weeper. This may be Egoyan's best work yet, and it's surely one of the best films of the year. Read full review
100
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Any film that provides Ian Holm with a large role is off to a good start. The Sweet Hereafter gets off to that start and keeps going. [Dec 8, 1997]
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
The filmmaker creates schematic, intuitive images that hauntingly crystallize the characters' situations. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
A solemn, subtly structured, beautifully acted and ultimately hypnotic movie. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Piercing, sweetly melancholy and acted with a breathtaking eye for nuance. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
A little movie almost perfectly realized. Read full review
80
VarietyBrendan Kelly
Canadian writer-director Atom Egoyan's most ambitious work to date, The Sweet Hereafter is a rich, complex meditation on the impact of a terrible tragedy on a small town. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The chronological looseness is part of the pleasure of the piece, which magically reassembles in the last reel into something strong, lucid and compellingly powerful. Read full review
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