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How others will see it. The Sweet Hereafter was a bit hit on the indie circuit, and both the film and its artistic spark, Atom Egoyan, were hailed by critics. Widespread acceptance was limited, since the film is a downer, and its lead (Ian Holm) is more pathetic than sympathetic.
Aside from indie marketing and excessive praise for Egoyan, the undeniable success of The Sweet Hereafter comes from its intense scrutiny of character. How does tragedy change people?
Some become bitter, like redneck musician Billy (Bruce Greenwood). Others withdraw in subtle ways, like Sarah Polley. Others, like Mrs. Driscoll (Gabrielle Rose), recover to build a new life.
How I felt about it. Holm's tragedy does not spawn from a single event, such as the bus accident. The heartbreak of his daughter's mental illness and addiction arrived in stages. Glimpses of hope emerge and are dashed. Lies are invented and repeated until nothing is believed any more.
Ironically, Holm also benefits from tragedy. He makes his living siphoning the claims of families who have experienced injury or death. Holm is at best regarded as a necessary evil by the families: a conduit for revenge, or at least money. At worst, Holm is a meddlesome outsider, who exploits and needlessly prolongs the suffering by trying to transform an unfortunate accident into an act of willful negligence. Because there's money involved.
Horror films sometimes have a theme of unsanctioned sex punished by murder. To an extent, that is also the case with The Sweet Hereafter. Billy covets thy neighbor's wife, and his two kids die. Polley is (apparently) sexually involved with her father, and she becomes paralyzed. It gets weird when Billy gives his late wife's clothes to Polley the day before the accident, and a character later even implies that this somehow was the cause.
An analogy is made from the medieval children's story about the Pied Piper. The piper isn't paid, and gets revenge by leading the town's children into a cavern, never to be seen again. All the kids except one, a cripple. The one left behind is Polley, but who is the piper, and what was his motive? Is God punishing the parents' sins by taking away their children? I'm open to suggestions, but this is what I conclude.
Why does Polley lie about the accident? She wants closure. But her relationship with Daddy Dearest remains unsettled. Does she appreciate what he's done for her, or does she blame him for the accident, or his past behavior? Apparently the latter, but she's too nice a person to let resentment vent in anger. She just holds back a little, perhaps just for now, but perhaps forever.