A Review of Mass by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Theatrical
Year: 2021
MPAA Rating, PG-13
USCCB Rating, A-II
Reel Rating, Four Reels
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers.
Mass is a unique film. Ninety percent of
the runtime takes place with only four actors in a small room, yet it could not
have been a play. I’ve only seen two other movies like it: 12 Angry Men
and My Dinner with Andre. This is equally good if not better. It’s
breathtaking how much writer/director Fran Kranz can do with so little, crafting
a masterpiece of grief, anger, love, and forgiveness from just the words on the
page and the actors’ interpretations. I walked out of theater knowing I was
witnessing cinematic history.
Mass
begins sparsely with two church volunteers setting up a stark room at small,
Protestant church. They chat about mundane issues like putting out snacks, locations
of chairs, and whether choir practice can be heard from upstairs. Two middle
aged couples arrive and are briefly greeted by a therapist before being left
alone in the room. The air is tense and uncomfortable without any knowledge yet
of what is occurring. Slowly, the situation unfolds. Richard (Reed Birney) and
Linda (Ann Dowd) are the parents Haden, a teenager who killed several fellow
students in school shooting before killing himself. Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail
(Martha Plimpton) are the parents of Evan, one of Haden’s victims. The meeting
is an act of restorative justice designed to bring peace to both families. Over
the course of two hours, the couples go back and forth, sometimes calm,
sometimes enraged. Each pair wants to know understand one another and help heal
but also defend their children, who are not present to defend themselves.
The
writing, directing, and acting in Mass is easily the best I’ve seen this
year and some of the greatest of all time. Kranz starts with wide shots, each
couple fully visible on screen. As the film progresses and the parents become
more forceful and less guarded, the frame becomes smaller, focusing on individuals
and finally on faces. The writing also begins far more general. The parents are
cordial and calm, trying to control their emotions and being specific with the
words. Gradually, they are more willing to express true feelings, even yelling
and weeping. There are no heroes and villains here, just parents grieving for
their children, and every audience member will recognize something of
themselves in these characters.
Kranz also
creates a brilliant device from a simple prop. Linda brings Gail a small bouquet
of flowers in a vase as a piece offering. Originally, the vase is placed in the
center of table but quickly removed as a distraction, showing Jay and Gail don’t
trust Richard and Linda. Gradually, the flowers get moved around the room until
Gail begins to open. She then puts the flowers near her and finally embraces
them and takes them home at the end of film, demonstrating acceptance and
closer.
Central to the
narrative are Haden’s motives. Why did he kill, and why did he kill Evan? A
great deal of time is spent on Haden’s background. “What do you want to know?”
Linda invites. “Everything.” Gail states flatly. “Everything? Why?” Linda
wonders. “Because your son killed mine,” Gail cries. There are the typical
explanations: he was shy, he made bad
friends, he played violent video games, he was depressed but was being treated.
It goes on and on and on, but Richard refuses call his son evil, much to Jay’s
anguish. Richard’s denial is understandable for a parent but ultimately insufficient.
Haden committed a heinous sin of grave matter; he did something truly evil, and
that label matters. This does not mean he is automatically damned, but it is
important for his actions to be condemned, even by those who love him. As I
write this review, another massacre has occurred, this
time in Norway with a bow and arrow of all things. The inability for
mainstream culture to understand these events underscores the inadequacy of psychology
or any other human science regarding evil. It is fundamentally a spiritual problem,
not a mental one.
The film ends
with a beautiful act of forgiveness where Gail, quiet for most of runtime,
unleashes a torrent of grace and tearfully forgives Richard, Linda, and Evan of
any wrongdoing. They literally embrace as their final act. This is the only
medicine that can ultimately heal, which is why it was Christ’s final request
on the cross. Justice is important, but only mercy redeems.
There are some films that can only be viewed once; Mass is one of them. It is two hours of people talking but without a single boring second. While one can disagree with some of its political or philosophical implications, it is impossible to deny the film’s power. St. John Paul the Great said that “terrible evil can only be conquered by equally terrible good.” Mass is terribly, terribly good.
This article first appeared in Catholic World Report on October 14th, 2021.
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