ชีวิตในโลกหลังความตาย

A hauntingly heavy film with a stunning score. The male lead is none other than Bilbo Baggins and the captain from Star Trek. The female lead is practically a teenage Uma Thurman, and she went on to star in the cult classic *Go* just two years later.

Okay, here's the translation, aiming for a tone and style that fits a film review context: The film intertwines two timelines: 1995, where lawyer Mitchell Stephens arrives in a devastated town to pursue a lawsuit and piece together the tragic events; and 1997, as he journeys by plane to meet with a young woman whose daughter perished during the accident. Themes of family and connection resonate throughout, suggesting perhaps the children were meant to find redemption, and atoning for the sins of the adults that survived them.

Probably the closest Egoyan has ever come to Lynch and PTA. The wrecked school bus is a coffin bewitched by time, summoning a traumatic past within its twisted, deformed metal frame. On the other hand, this trauma may also be a possibility of returning to the past, at the cost of forcing others to constantly revisit and reconstruct it. As the film unfolds through the Puritan-like lawyer's conspiracy-laden imagination, the typical "investigation" itself is disjointed into a portrait of the town's collective life. Therefore, within the film's irreducible "past," two events occurred, so beneath his "benevolent" facade lies a deliberate spinning of events into a dizzying chaos.

Atom Egoyan's masterpiece. 1. Despite missing out on the Palme d'Or, I still agree with Isabelle Adjani's choice; neither *The Eel* nor *Cherry* can compare to this film. 2. The film employs a three-strand narrative structure, accompanied by a mesmerizing score and restrained, deliberate camera work. 3. Being trapped in the car wash, the bus that plunges into the river, and Sara's confinement in the phone booth, constitute rectangular coffins and symbolize death. 4. The recitation of the tale of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is a stroke of genius, revealing the cryptic inner world of the lame survivor, Micheal. 5. Sarah Polley delivers both beauty and brilliant acting. (9.0/10)