Blessed Stranger: after Flight 111

In September 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people on board. David Wellington's TV movie centres on two strangers bound together by the tragedy. Kate Nelligan is typically assured as a mother hoping to find evidence that her teenage daughter somehow survived the tragedy. Hugh Thompson offers solid support as a fisherman still traumatised by his failure to rescue anyone from the sea following the crash. The emphasis is firmly on sensitivity, but Michael Amo's script mostly resists the temptation to wallow in sentiment and conveys something of the devastation experienced by both the bereaved and the bystander.