“Mass”, the directorial debut of actor Fran Kranz, who also wrote the script, is an intense, though staged, drama about two couples meeting to find a cure after a tragedy involving their children. The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week, takes place almost entirely in an Episcopal church. The film was shot in Idaho.
Judy (Breeda Wool) is eagerly preparing a room where Gail (Martha Plimpton) and Jay (Jason Isaacs) will meet Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd). Kendra (Michelle N. Carter), who was advising one of the couples, arrives soon. There is small talk and awkward conversation and important pauses. Kranz compensates for these uncomfortable moments with contemplative pictures of the church, windows and rooms. Finally, the two pairs of parents arrive and the drama begins for real.
The couples, alone in a room and gathered around a table, exchange pleasantries. They eventually start to open up. Gail shows some pictures. Linda shows a jar that her son made once she found it special. Everyone is being polite. The atmosphere is stifling.
While the characters initially discuss vague details of the crime that affected both families, “Mass” slowly reveals that Hayden, son of Richard and Linda, murdered 10 students at his school with guns and a bomb. One of the victims was Gail and Jay’s son, Evan. The meeting, which takes place years after the murder, is an opportunity for each couple to “hear and heal”, but also to understand “why and how it happened”.
Franz wisely allows “action” in the claustrophobic space to develop naturally, allowing each character – and the audience – to absorb the impact of what is being said. Your strategy pays off. Kranz’s deliberate direction allows viewers to focus on the performers’ actions and reactions. Plimpton’s Gail is full of visible pain, expressed so clearly only in the way she closes her jaw or breaks her voice when she speaks. Linda de Dowd, by contrast, is compassionate and friendly, a kind of earthly mother who wants to find peace, not conflict. Richard de Birney is cooler, defensive. Meanwhile, Isaacs’ Jay is justifiably angry, boiling inside, while trying to be a backing stone for his wife.
“Mass” gives each cast member a great speech to thrill and express what their characters are feeling. The conversation is certainly attractive as it progresses. There are some background details that can provide clues about individual behavior, but this is not a character study. Instead, the film starts a discussion about the lasting psychological and emotional impact of armed violence and school shootings on these parents.
Kranz’s script mentions issues of bullying, isolation, computer games, adolescent mental health and depression to explain the teenager’s actions. But the film does not – and cannot – provide answers to the desolate characters whose lives have been destroyed by this crime. Instead, “Mass” offers an understanding of the survivors.
The most moving scenes in the film show Linda talking about the experience of being unable to process her pain, or even properly burying her son. She explains what it means for her to be seen as the mother of a murderer and how she deals with that sad and cruel fact every day. Dowd is moving in these scenes because she is not asking for mercy; she is venting to the only audience that, however distressed it may be, can understand her unique experience. But it is a moving story that Linda tells about her son at the end of the film that really resonates.
In contrast, Richard is not indifferent, but certainly the most eager to leave it all behind. His perspective is important, but he is almost lost in the showboating of the other actors.
On several occasions, Linda asks Gail and Jay for stories about their son, to give them the opportunity to share and remember Evan fondly. Gail recounts a memory, about Evan playing football, that leads to a revealing moment. Alternatively, Jay is irritated when he talks about the situation and goes on a tangent about science and psychopathy. As things heat up, Kranz cuts briefly to a memorial, to give everyone a break.
The filmmaker wisely keeps these cinematic flourishes to a minimum. He also, fortunately, uses music sparingly. Only a church choir, heard in the final scene of the film, although well intentioned, gives a feeling of heavy hand.
“Mass” can’t help making comparisons with Lionel Schriver’s novel “We Need to Talk about Kevin” about a school sniper and Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” about two parents of children involved in a conflict, both of which have been adapted for films. But Kranz’s dark drama is a worthy entry into the genre. It is focused on forgiveness and how people can find something valuable in something horrible. However, cynical as it may seem, one cannot help thinking that “Mass” was designed for liberals with a bloody heart. It does not recognize the virtue of resentment.
A small but significant moment at the end of the film can best address this. Gail wonders what to do with the flowers that Linda has kindly made for her. She does not deliberately leave them behind or throw them out of contempt. She asks for a box to put them in, which makes Linda feel thoughtless and defies the benevolent Judy. Then, Gail clings to them, as a symbol of her son, from whom she cannot get rid of. The “mass” can say more in this quiet and reflective moment than in all the conversation that came before it.