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Mass Movie Review

Mass is a 2021 indie drama film directed by Fran Krantz and starring Ann Dowd, Reed Birney, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton. It is the best movie of the year.

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“Why do I wanna know about your son?

Because he killed mine“

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Two couples meet for a painful and raw conversation in the aftermath of a violent tragedy. Apparently what happened is that one couple’s son killed a number of other kids in school before killing himself, and one of the kids that he killed is the son of another couple. Now the four people have to put aside their trauma and legal actions in order to sort things out emotionally.

This is a heartbreaking, incredibly difficult to watch drama, but one that doesn’t reveal its conflict at the very beginning in what was the most masterful part of an all around perfect piece. The first sequence sees a couple of women organize the event that is going to be most of the movie. We don’t know what it is, but we instantly realize that it is something hugely important judging by the woman’s obsessively nervous strives to make everything perfect for the upcoming meet-up.

Eventually, the two couples arrive, and we still don’t know what happened, but we can deduce pretty quickly judging by their very uncomfortable, emotionally restrained demeanors. From the first moment, you can just sense the electric emotions that beam from this room, emotions of discomfort, pain and anger.

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The film then cleverly continues to reveal what exactly happened through dialogue. Step by step, we get to know the most minute details of that most tragic day in these people’s lives, and it is this decision to reveal the plot slowly and patiently that made the film much more engaging and to me honestly riveting.

Mass is not just extremely emotional and almost unbearable to watch at times, but it is also this highly sophisticated, thought-provoking examination of grief, parental responsibilities and even the concept of evil itself. I found it very important that the film acknowledged the concept of the bad seed. It is easier to just pinpoint all the blame on the parents or the society or some personal trauma, but for the majority of time murderers are born with the potential to harm and kill, which the movie cleverly states.

It also powerfully showcases just how difficult it is for parents, especially mothers to separate the child from the murderer. There is this heartbreaking scene that sees Linda grapple with her motherly instincts and her own grief, which all culminated in that final moment where the two women finally understood each other and embraced. The husband leaving and the wife staying for just a bit to have that final moment with the other mother was so cleverly written and it was just the perfect way to end the film.

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Mass is definitely universal in its themes, but it is also very specifically American in the particular details, especially when it comes to the concepts of suicide bombing and gun laws. There is one scene where this thorny issue is addressed for a bit, but the characters smartly move away from this issue to focus on their own personal experiences. But still, this film further signifies the importance of banning guns. They are not the problem, but they do significantly help make these tragedies happen on an even bigger magnitude.

Mass features the finest ensemble performances of the year. Each of the four actors delivered a powerful performance. Reed Birney is the least memorable in the most unlikable role, though the character did receive more humanizing moments as as the film went by. Jason Isaacs channeled Jay’s immense anger phenomenally in what is probably his career-best performance. This is an actor who is famous for the franchise work that he did, but here he proved that he is first and foremost a terrific dramatic actor.

But the women are the highlights here. Martha Plimpton was fantastic in this deeply tragic role. She sold her character’s deep-seated anger, but also her willingness to empathize and understand. All of these actors are terrific, but the standout is clearly Ann Dowd as she got the meatiest role and delivered the best female acting performance of 2021. She sold both her grief and her regret while particularly excelling in the many emotional outbursts that happened throughout the story.

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Mass is so well directed by Fran Kantz. Yes, he was helped considerably the efforts of his cast, but he still guided the project through the finish line with impressive efforts, especially from a first-time director. His writing is especially great as he is also an author of the script that is sophisticated and layered. The dialogue is tremendous and consistently engaging while the Christian imagery was also powerful and fitting in the context of the story.