Every year, there is always that one film that you think is going to wow you based on the subject matter and the buzz that surrounds the film.
Ever since Mass premiered at Sundance in early 2021, the buzz was that the main quartet of the film gave truly astonishing performances and that the film was quite riveting...especially considering that the bulk of the runtime is set in one room with this quartet of actors.
When it comes to films, this kind of setting can be incredibly difficult to pull off. Stage-to-film adaptations are notorious for not always adapting well to the screen if a director doesn't know how to give it more of a cinematic flair.
In recent years, we've had something like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which sort of had erratic results under the hands of theatre director George C. Wolfe or if you really want to see a theatre director crash and burn while directing a film, the legendary Hal Prince gave us A Little Night Music, one of the most lifeless musical films ever made with shots/blocking that are amazing in their ineptness.
A great example of a movie that works really well with just people sitting down in one space talking is Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre, though the lively mix of debate and the witty rapport drive that film thanks to the charismatic personality of Andre Gregory and the uniquely quirky Wallace Shawn.
In the case of Mass, you have actor Fran Kranz (not exactly a household name but he has been in films like The Cabin in the Woods and has had supporting roles on the Broadway stage) making his writing/directorial debut with this film...and no, it isn't adapted from a play. Mass does seem like it could've been a play prior to this, but you can tell there are moments where Kranz tries to liven up the room with the blocking.
However, the film does feel a lot like a debut in terms of its direction...but I will go more into that later.
Mass revolves around two grieving couples: Jay & Gail (Jason Issacs & Martha Plimpton) and Richard & Linda (Reed Birney & Ann Dowd) who are meeting in a private room located at an Episcopal Chruch. As they talk, you don't really know what exactly they are meeting about (unless you already heard about the film to the extent I did) but you soon realize that Hayden, the son of Richard & Linda, had been responsible for a school bombing/shooting that killed nearly a dozen people, including Evan, the son of Jay & Gail.
Six years have passed since the tragedy, but both sets of parents agree to meet and talk about the ordeal. As expected, Richard & Linda are questioning a lot of how they navigated raising their son while Jay & Gail are bitter and hope to seek to cause further pain on Richard & Linda.
As I stated, these four actors are fantastic.
Ann Dowd is always first rate, and she is one of the best performers out there at conveying dismay and heartbreak.
Jason Issacs gives the best performance of his career as Jay, and I would argue he disappears into the role as it was hard to place him as the same man who played Lucius Malfoy.
Reed Birney, who is mostly known as a theatre actor and who was fantastic in plays like The Humans and Man From Nebraska, is perhaps the one who doesn't seem to get as much of a showcase, but he manages to find a sterling strength that is also more aloof than the others. One key thing about him is that he actually has a business trip to fly off to that afternoon, so you almost get the sense that he has one foot out the door. I would argue that the subtleties of that were masterfully displayed by Birney.
The MVP was Martha Plimpton, who has been someone who has been doing stellar work in the Theatre and on TV for many years, but never seemed to find immense success in film. Here, she is the one I would say feels the most "lived in" with her role. Within her first seconds onscreen, you can just feel the palpable sadness and bitterness and fatigue that she has been living with for so long. The truth is that she deserves to be nominated for an Oscar...and frankly, I wouldn't be opposed to her winning.
The sad truth is she won't...and that is due to the unfortunate truth that film award campaigns are simply unfair and truly political. Mass is distributed by Bleecker Street which is a small company that doesn't have the funds to properly promote their films to degree of some of these other studios. Due to that, it is very likely you won't see any significant nominations for Mass. It's a shame as these actors are far more worthy than some of the contenders who have actually won Oscars in the last few years.
I also want to state that the atmosphere of the church is very well done as it just feels so much like a small-town church with its sort of homey and outdated decor. The actors portraying the church volunteers also fit very well into that world, but...
And here's where this review is going to take a turn...
I honestly was underwhelmed by Mass as a whole.
As an acting showcase, it pretty much delivered. I could argue giving nominations to all four of these people (though Birney might miss out on my list), and they did the best that they could with this script.
The script to Mass, while not bad by any means, just seems to play at one-note and doesn't have many layers. I could honestly see the argument that a film about the aftermath of a school shooting should not contain some kind of joy or levity...but I feel like the film needed SOMETHING to bring it out of its constant state of despair.
The film is sort of bookended with scenes from the church workers. I did state that they did well in establishing the atmosphere, but they also felt very unnecessary. I really want to give them props for creating a very real seeming environment but all it did was sort of give the film a very slow start and then brought it to an end that dragged. So yes, I guess you could say those were the films attempts at levity...but it came from the absolutely wrong place.
Look at a playwright like Eugene O'Neill, a man who was known for writing rather dire and depressing plays that mirrored his rather tragic life, but his work often had humor sprinkled throughout in ways that might surprise you.
Look at something like Long Day's Journey into Night, which at 4 hours in length often makes many want to run away. However, we watch Mary Tyrone, a very bitter and depressed woman battling a drug addiction also finding rather humorous ways to insult the quality of the home they live in. Some productions don't play this tone up and they often suffer because of that...whereas the recent revival with Jessica Lange worked because they played up a lot of that subtle humor.
By contrast, look at Eugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon, an earlier work of his that won the Pulitzer and was a great success but is now barely discussed today. In college, I did a scene from this play in acting class and adored it...but man oh man, was that play a huge depressing pill looking back on it! Well written but just pure drama to the max.
O'Neill eventually learned that good levity does wonders...and I feel Kranz does show potential in finding that tone later.
I also think the cheeky use of the old hymn Blest Be the Ties That Bind as another part of the bookend was a mixed bag. Old hymns still carry a certain amount of power when used (and a project I am working on now might actually utilize some of these in an unusual way), and I do think it sort of worked here even if it felt a little overbearing.
I would also argue that the film could've gone further with the topic of gun use. The film could've chosen to delve into debates about gun control and political strife, but it seemed to only squarely set on them trying to psychoanalyze why young Hayden decided to do what he did. There is a certain intrigue to that, but I am not sure it needed to be stretched out for over an hour.
Mass feels like a story that I would've come up with in high school or early college when I was still actively doing playwriting. I was always drawn to either dark comedies or incredibly bleak tragedies for topics.
For example, I had a play (that I still have a desire to return to, but I would need to rework it) that was about a Pastor's family whose youngest child is kidnapped and eventually found murdered...and there was a dark twist about who actually murdered the child and that it was a connection to the family.
I still think there could be something intriguing in that story, but how I conceived it at the time was insanely melodramatic. Case in point: I had a scene where the Pastor/father is standing at a fire place and starts screaming while tearing pages from a Bible and throwing them in. I LOVED the symbolism of that...especially as a person who has fervent issues with organized religion to this day.
Now, it just reads as too much.
I wouldn't say Mass is at THAT extreme, but I do feel like it teeters on the brink in a lot of ways. I think the fact that the actors didn't play everything on an explosive emotional is what helped keep most of the film on a bearable level. I could see a lesser actor wanted to scream and yell and cry constantly, but the right pitch was found with these performances.
So, there you have it.
The actors.
Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Issacs, and Martha Plimpton.
They make the film worth seeing, but I also suspect I would never sit through the film again.
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