MIFF Play #1: MASS

Two couples meet at a church hall to sit down and talk. The theme of the day: your son killed mine. throughout the discussion, blame is laid and deflected, positions shift, the obvious confronted or dismissed, and all the things that might be uttered in this situation find voice. As they leave the awkward safe harbour and speak their hearts and minds the defences are lowered and searing truths leap out. This is the whole film (plus a tough final testimony) but that also means it's a gruelling near two hours of poignant dialogue and magisterial performances which is why you're watching.

The themes of parenthood and responsibility as well as the flaws in an educational system that tolerates bullying fall and land on an America numb from increasingly frequent school shootings and the culture that allows them to continue (though the film is careful to avoid the kid buying guns online theme as it would muddy already difficult waters) Instead of the screaming fest you might expect from this you get a lot of dynamics in pace, emotion and intensity from the central quartet of character actors. The mighty Ann Dowd, constantly dealing with a stone of guilt as she tries to plead understand for the child who became a mass murderer. Her husband, clinging to a few strands of mitigating details, struggles with his own denial. Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, as the parents of one of the victims, hold in tempests of rage behind fragile social observances.

The setting in a room on church premises is also poignant but in an unexpected way. None of these people declare themselves affined to religion and the sect itself (Episcopalian/Anglican) is chosen as a kind of neutral territory while retaining the sense of sanctuary. While there is use of church music at one point to suggest healing it is the music rather than its religious setting that has the effect. That's indicative of the thoughtfulness and seriousness of this film whose title combines the notion of a sacred ceremony and the unimaginable violence of a school shooting. See it if it appears in cinemas or on streamers. Don't be daunted by the gravity of it, it's so well turned you'll more guided than manipulated.