A tightly observed portrait of a community in shock after the death of most of its children when their bus crashes into a frozen lake. Survivors are the lady driver, whose husband is in a wheelchair following a stroke, and a promising 15-year-old singer (Sarah Polley) who has just succumbed to being bedded by her own father. Now she herself is in a wheelchair. A greedy lawyer (Ian Holm) sees the opportunity to gain millions in compensation from the bus company, with a third for himself. Behind his obsequious wheedling, as he seeks to represent parents of the victims, his own life lies in ruins, his wife long gone, his only daughter a drug addict headed for certain oblivion. You may have trouble with the time scale here - the story is conducted on three different time levels at once - but there's no mistaking the grief and poignancy of the situation. Atom Egoyan was Oscar-nominated as both writer (Intelligently adapting Russell Banks's novel) and director.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes