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The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (2016)

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IN CONTEXT

GENRE

Drama

DIRECTOR

Atom Egoyan

WRITERS

Atom Egoyan (screenplay); Russell Banks (novel)

STARS

Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Caerthan Banks

BEFORE

1994 Exotica, a story set in a strip joint in Toronto, brings international attention to Atom Egoyan’s work.

AFTER

2002 Ararat, Egoyan’s drama about the Armenian genocide of 1915, wins critical acclaim but faces distribution problems due to political pressure from Turkey, which denies genocide.

2009 Chloe, an erotic thriller staring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore, is Egoyan’s biggest commercial hit.

Most dramas build up to tragedy; few begin with its aftermath. Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s movie deals with the fallout from two tragedies, weaving them together in a subtle meditation on survivor’s guilt.

In a town in British Columbia, 14 children have died when the bus they were on slid into an icy lake. Lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Ian Holm) suspects negligence, and tries to build a case against the bus company and its driver, the horrified and otherwise harmless Dolores (Gabrielle Rose). Stevens’ bid to persuade reluctant locals to seek redress is a manifestation of the despair in his own life, as he struggles to cope with losing his own daughter to drug addiction.

Seeking closure

Stevens meets his match in Nicole (Sarah Polley), a 15-year-old who was on the bus but survived. Contrary to his expectations, Nicole has no rage; instead, she feels left behind, in a ghost town shattered by grief. Her sabotaging of his case with a wholly unexpected deposition is the payoff to this beguiling movie. Why she does it is something for both Stevens and the viewer to ponder.

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Nicole survives the accident but is left paralyzed. So too, in a sense, is the small town torn apart by the loss of the children who died that day.

What else to watch: Short Cuts (1993) ✵ Exotica (1994) ✵ Breaking the Waves (1996) ✵ Ararat (2002) ✵ Mystic River (2003) ✵ 21 Grams (2003)