MASS

Review: Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore two sets of grieving parents apart agree to talk privately in a room to digest the effects of the incident on their lives.
Director: Fran Kranz
Actors: Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Reed Birney, Breeda Wool and Michelle N. Carter
Year: 2021
Genre: Drama
Conclusion: 4/5
I have to say that this is my favourite film of 2021. This film was filmed in sequence over eight days. I absolutely loved Jason Isaacs’s performance but I thought that the whole cast were fantastic in equal measures. Since watching this film I have thought of nothing else. It is a film that keeps coming back to me and that I keep coming back to. I have to say how upset I am that this has only had a limited release on Sky Cinema. I do hope that in the future that this film will be remembered and will get to be seen by many. Just like The Shawshank Redemption (1994) which was a flop when released in the cinemas and has only just got its money back and is now a classic. Mass is a film when watching it that I actually believed. I believed in all the characters and what they all went through. I can imagine this very much to be a stage play. The one thing I thought was powerful was that it was filmed in a side room in a church. The title Mass could mean many things but I have wondered whether the title refers to the heavy weight and burden that these four people have carried with them for six years. The film is about redemption, forgiveness, healing and peace. I personally think that this film should at least get nominated for Bafta/Academy Awards but unfortunately I don’t think it will and will get overlooked. In an interview for the Radio Times, Jason Isaacs said about this film “It’s about communication and contact and prejudice and ways through it. So don’t be put off thinking that it’s a film that will make you feel worse, because it’s a film that will make you feel better”.