08 Oct REVIEW – ‘Mass’ is a raw chamber piece cemented by four of the best performances you will see this year

For over two decades, the world has watched in horror at the news of yet another shooting inside an American school. From Columbine and Sandy Hook to Parkland and Virginia Tech, the number of shootings and the growing death toll is too painful to even fathom. There’s a whole generation of children who have sadly grown accustomed to school shootings being a reality of their formative years to the point active shooter drills are now necessary to prepare American kids for the very real possibility of a shooting occurring outside their classroom door.

The only reason you haven’t heard of any U.S. school shootings lately is purely a byproduct of coronavirus forcing the closure of most schools for the last 18 months (for the record, there were still technically 20 school shootings in the U.S. in the last 12 months). It’s a subject cinema must approach with a gentle touch or risk venturing into exploitation territory. Thankfully, Mass gets it so right.

With his stunning directorial debut, writer-director Fran Kranz tackles the aftermath of a school shooting with delicacy and sensitivity to deliver one of the year’s most powerful and unforgettable films. A raw chamber piece cemented by four of the best performances you will see in 2021, Mass is brilliant, devastating, and heartbreaking. It’s not an easy watch, but the reward is entirely worth it.

Taking place almost entirely in the confines of a small room behind a church, Mass centres on two sets of parents still dealing with the pain left behind after a deadly school shooting that claimed the lives of nine students and one teacher. Six years after the dark day that took their teenage son, Evan, Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) have agreed to meet with Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd), whose son committed the massacre before taking his own life.

Despite a number of years passing, Jay and Gail are still grappling with the grief of losing their son and the anger they feel towards both the murderer who killed their child and the parents who raised such a monster. But it’s immediately apparent Richard and Linda are in an equal state of trauma from both the pain of losing their son and the guilt over the trail of bodies he left in his wake. Questions will be asked and accusations will be made on a potential path of healing six years in the making.

It’s a decidedly simple film in so many ways to the point you’d be remiss in thinking Kranz is adapting his screenplay from a play. Yes, this film does indeed feel inherently “stagey,” but when the screenplay and the performances are this terrific, it simply does not matter. Kranz has the confidence in both his writing and his actors to allow the camera to capture the tense, raw, and gripping setup he’s crafted.

This is a conversational piece that doesn’t require flashy gimmicks or elaborate camerawork to deliver its intended impact. Frankly, it’s refreshing to find a director understanding that sometimes the performances can speak for themselves and it’s best to just point, shoot, and allow the magic to occur. As an actor himself, Franz clearly knows how to get the best out of his cast. His direction is deftly assured with the camera often remaining tightly focused on the actors’ faces to elicit every drop of emotion from their sublime performances.

But it’s Franz’s screenplay that truly dazzles and must be an immediate contender for awards season consideration. His script wisely takes its time to unveil the major plot points, allowing the audience to connect with each parent before we know the truth of the events that unwittingly bind them. Every word of dialogue feels human and authentic, particularly as Kranz allows each parent to express their wildly differing feelings and opinions that highlight how four individuals can view a tragedy in vastly distinctive ways.

While it’s a film centred on an event that’s inherently political (gun control has been a hot-button issue in America for decades), Kranz keeps his writing tightly focused on the human element of this narrative. Naturally, there’s inherent subtext on school shootings, but this isn’t a preachy, woke indictment of a problem without any easy answers. It’s an intimate portrait of trauma too many American parents know all too well. It’s dripping with realism because it’s a story you could pull from the headlines dozens of times over the last 20 years, if only the sensationalist media would bother to cover more than shooting itself.

Mass is ultimately a captivating acting masterclass with four sensational, career-best performances that will linger long in your mind. Birney, Dowd, Isaacs, and Plimpton combine to form one of the finest ensemble casts of the year. Like any true ensemble piece, the four actors will be campaigned in the supporting categories for awards season, and, frankly, they all deserved to be nominated. Each gets their moment and they will all leave an indelible mark you won’t soon shake. It’s the kind of film acting students will be studying for years to come.

As a grieving mother who can’t let go of the past, Plimpton is simply astounding. Gail clings to her grief out of fear it would be disrespectful to her son to “move on,” but it’s clear she hasn’t fully dealt with the simmering anger and unimaginable pain that’s constantly bubbling beneath the emotional walls she’s built around herself. When those walls finally come crashing down, Plimpton is beyond heartbreaking. Jay, however, is far less contained. His fury is immediate and obvious, but nothing can prepare you for when he finally truly erupts. A scintillating Isaacs instils his performance with immense passion and pathos as a father desperate for answers and admissions.

Birney’s performance is the most understated of the quartet, but no less impressive. Richard takes a more guarded and defensive position throughout the proceedings, but Birney effortlessly captures the hidden guilt of a father still coming to terms with the fact he didn’t know his son at all. But it’s the sublime Dowd who might just nudge slightly above the rest of the cast with her empathetic, earnest performance as a deeply maternal mother grappling with the fact the boy she raised could commit such unspeakable crimes. We’re likely quick to admonish the parents of a murderer and it’s obvious Linda is drowning in the guilt she feels over her potential failings as a mother. Dowd’s honest, uninhibited performance is a revelation, particularly a gripping, compassionate final monologue that will leave you breathless.

A fly-on-the-wall experience that will destroy your heart before slowly piecing it back together, Mass is overwhelming in the best possible way. It’s a marvellous showcase for four incredible actors who bring Krantz’s tremendous script to life. It offers an intimate, honest, and powerful insight into grief and the complicated journey to healing. It’s a deeply human story rooted in trauma, but with enough hope to show there can be life after a tragedy. It’s unflinching and uncomfortable, but necessarily so. And it’s one of the absolute finest films of the year.