ThiefHott Too much of everything

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

tangreat-bk A slow burner that will leave you emotionally devastated by the time it ends. This reminded me a lot of Manchester by the sea. The small town, the accident, the grief. If you loved Manchester, you're surely going to love this. Or vice versa. I think. Maybe. Who knows.

WakenPayne The summary will make sense once you have seen this.The Canadian film industry is one that I am now really getting into. This movie has a very disjointed structure and one that might be hard-to-follow for some people, which really is my only complaint though.The plot deals with 'tragedy', in particular losing your child. This occurs throughout the film and not just with the townsfolk that lost their kids in the bus crash, but Ian Holm's character has a drug-addicted daughter in this as well which also continues this theme outside of the townsfolk.If you want to watch a movie with good dialogue and characters with a lot of depth then I suggest watching, although to keep you in the right frame of mind then watch this movie expecting a dark, well-made period drama, that was what I was expecting and it was fulfilled in all aspects.No wonder this is considered Canada's best film, that title is deservingly so.

Sindre Kaspersen Egptian-born Canadian screenwriter, producer and director Atom Egoyan's seventh feature film, an adaptation of American writer Russel Banks' novel from 1991 which was inspired by a true story concerning a school bus accident in Alton, Texas 1989, tells the story of middle-aged attorney Mitchell Stevens who arrives in a remote rural district of Canada in December 1995 to report the circumstances surrounding a tragic school bus accident and help the parents of the victims to file an insurance-case against the bus company. A task that becomes difficult when he learns that most of the parents have numerous dark secrets. As he gets closer to the inhabitants of the small community it becomes apparent that this case has a strong personal influence on him, but his devotion brings nothing good to the parents, who begins to question his motives when they see that the case has more meaning to him than to them.The great score, the mindful dialog and the lyrical cinematography by Paul Sarossy emphasizes the emphatic and mysterious atmosphere in this resonating and realistic psychological drama which is beautifully filmed by Atom Egoyan, who creates versatile perspectives with his nuanced and subtle camera movements. His detailed and introspective screenplay examines how a bus accident affects the people in a small community and the aftermath of sorrow in a profound way, and portrays an in-depth study of character about a grieving man who has a restrained relationship to a daughter he hardly ever sees and who finds comfort and identifies with the parents who lost their children in the accident. Ian Holm's interpretation of the lawyer is outstanding in a refined and understated performance.The overall acting is good and Sarah Polley delivers a remarkable acting performance in her breakthrough role as teenager Nicole Purnell. During this brilliantly directed Canadian film, a short poem from 1842 called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by English poet and playwright Robert Browning (1812-1889) is read through Sarah Polley's voice-over. This fairy-tale forms a fine parallel to the story about the lawyer and the parents. With it's underlying lyrical aura and captivating narrative, this independent film stands as a poetic, compassionate and reflective masterpiece from the late 1990s.

Roger Burke This is a simple story – simple in the sense described in the Storyline on the IMDb main page. But, it's from Russell Banks's novel that Atom Egoyan has written and directed one of the most complex plots ever put to film. For those interested, you'll find a complete analysis of this film's structure in Screen writing Updated by Linda Aronson, published in 2000. Incidentally, Russell Banks played the part of Dr Robeson.Avoiding the usual type of visual cues, Egoyan shows only two dates on screen to help orient the viewer to the time shifts (there are multiple shifts); instead, most are managed and revealed through the context of the scene and dialog. Which means the viewer must listen and watch carefully to stay on track. Some viewers might be annoyed.Adding to the complexity is the presentation of five different stories in the 112 minutes running time: the accident, the intrusive lawyer Mitchell (Ian Holm) and his daughter, Zoe (Caerthan Banks), the overly-motherly bus driver Dolores (Gabrielle Rose), the sex affair between Billy (Bruce Greenwood) and Risa (Alberta Watson) and, of course, the illicit and incestuous situation between Nicole (Sarah Polley) and her father, Sam (Tom McCamus).It takes a master film-maker to put all that together and achieve a work of art. On that basis, all serious film lovers should not miss this event, even if the story is unpalatable for many. Life, however, is full of such stories: read the daily tabloids.Ian Holm is the focus and catalyst of this narrative, for two reasons: first, he is, to some extent, the typical (or not so-typical) "ambulance chaser" after a buck, or too many; hence, much of the action involves his presence. Second, he is also after justice for the dead and lost children, spurred on because he lost Zoe to drugs, alcohol, AIDS etc – so she is effectively dead to him also. By trying to help the town folk in their loss, he hopes to achieve some sense of closure for his own loss – in other words, a self-serving attitude, much like the world in general.I think Holm gives the performance of his life in this film.For me, the greatest pleasure was listening to the voice-over of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the narration of which is spoken by Nicole throughout the film. That poem serves to function as a metaphor of course for the fate that awaits her and her father: loneliness, sadness and despair in a cruel and indifferent world, while all the deceased children have moved on to the sweet hereafter.Not to be missed.November 27, 2011.