By: Andrew Wing

Mass is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Fran Kranz (known for having prominent acting roles in The Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing) in his directorial debut and starring Reed Birney (Morning Glory, The Hunt), Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, Hereditary), Jason Isaacs (The Patriot, Harry Potter film series), and Martha Plimpton (The Goonies, The Good Wife).

The film follows two sets of parents: Jay (Isaacs) and Gail Perry (Plimpton) are parents grieving the death of their son, a victim of a school shooting. Richard (Birney) and Linda (Dowd) are the parents of the perpetrator. Six years after the tragedy, both couples agree to meet and talk.

Mass had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2021, and was released on October 8, 2021, by Bleecker Street.

THE GOOD

The time has finally come! I have been patiently waiting for Mass ever since I saw how well it did at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival! The trailer hooks you right in with its extremely real and emotionally intense story that is all too familiar given the tragic events of the past 20+ years. With that said, I was just eager to see how this story would be brought to the big screen, so keep reading to find out my thoughts!

As I said earlier, this is the debut film from Fran Kranz. Kranz is an actor who has appeared sporadically with supporting roles in movies, but I got a feeling he will be a household name as a director after this. His screenplay here is phenomenal. The story is ultimately about families that are struggling to find some sort of healing in the wake of a school shooting. I loved how the way he went around dealing with the tragedy didn’t feel forced at any point. He never showed flashbacks to the day which was good because that might have pushed things too far. He made it able for the audience to explore the issue in a way that wasn’t too heavy-handed. It’s a drama about the healing process, and the writing was so great that we got to have all four main characters fleshed out so we got to see them all heal in their own unique way. It’s definitely one of the best screenplays of the past couple of years, and it’d be an atrocity if this didn’t get nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Not only is his screenplay deserving of praise, but his overall direction should not be overlooked. I liked how Kranz decided to make this a sort of chamber-piece by having it all take place in one room. Despite it only taking place in one room, it still felt cinematic because you can feel the tension in the room and the details of all the performances. It just felt appropriate and very real. It honestly felt like this had been adapted from a play with the way it is shot, but the editing and cinematography were exceptional, and I can’t say enough for Kranz’s filmmaking here.

Onto the four performances, and I kid you not, they were all extraordinarily strong. I will start with the performances we got from Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton who play Jay and Gail Perry, the parents of the victim. They played characters who have experienced the worst loss imaginable, the loss of a child. We really get a deep sense of who they are and how they have dealt with the tragedy in their first few minutes on screen. Plimpton and Isaacs both gave their career-best performances in my eyes, and their scenes are just stunning and they will most certainly make you cry. They do an excellent job and their performances are so real that you feel everything they feel by watching. They are so good in this that they deserve to both be nominated for every award they can be, and I hope this is just the beginning of seeing them in more leading dramatic roles in the future.

Next when it comes to the performances are Reed Birney and Ann Dowd who play Richard and Linda, the parents of the perpetrator. Ann Dowd is probably the most recognizable name in this film from starring in The Handmaid’s Tale, whereas Reed Birney will be unknown to most audiences as he has really only done Broadway plays. They were both superb in this, and I would say that Dowd gave the best performance of the four, but they were all perfect. Dowd dominates every second she is on the screen, and she is quickly becoming one of the best supporting actresses in the business right now. I would say she is the one most likely to be nominated for awards, and if she doesn’t, I will be floored. As for Birney, he plays the most conservative of the bunch and you don’t think he will break down, but when he does, it just gets you. I hope we see him in more films after this, because the man is very talented.

THE BAD

There is absolutely nothing “bad” about this film. The only thing that stuck out was that it was kind of exhausting at times because of how heavy the subject matter is. The movie is just under 2 hours long, and I think it might have been better suited as a 90 minute one. With that said though, every moment in the film was so impactful and valuable, so I wouldn’t want to take away too many moments from it as a whole.

THE VERDICT

Fran Kranz’s Mass is one of the most powerful and precise examinations of grief and forgiveness that I have ever seen. Kranz’s directorial debut is one of the best of the past few years as he approaches an extremely sensitive issue in a careful, and ultimately cathartic way. It also has some of the best writing and acting of 2021 as the four performances from Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney are all awards worthy.