'Mass' ending explained: How does one come to acceptance? 

Once in a while there comes a movie that ends up striking all the right chords. Fran Kranz's directorial debut, Mass, is a prime example of this. The intimate four-character piece is premised on the aftermath of a school shooting. It unfolds in one stifly room, devoid of too many props or supporting characters, letting a powerhouse cast and a thoughtful script carry the movie to execution.

Mass is raw with emotions. Director Kranz has done an amazing job with the plot and direction, delivering to the audience a one-of-a-kind drama that is equal parts engaging and unnerving.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.

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'Mass' plot line

Six years after a school shooting, the parents of the killer meet with the parents of one of the victims in an attempt to find closure and move on past the harrowing incident that turned their lives upside down.

Mass starts off with an unnerving scene that features two supporting characters, a social worker and a church employee, as they set up the meeting spot for the two couples in the basement of a church. The urgency in their pace and interaction sets the stage for what to expect in the next two hours.

As the couples meet and sit around, tension rises as they move from making small talk to discussing the incident. What follows is an emotionally laden conversation that soon escalates as both parties try to put across their perspectives in order to gain closure from each other.

The couples exchange pictures and stories of their sons in order to help the other party gain some insight into the deaths of both the victims and the killer himself.

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How does it all end?

After an excruciatingly painful two hours of confrontation, breakdown, and attempting to walk in each other's shoes in order to navigate through their own griefs, both parties find their resolutions. Gail, the mother of the victim, declares that she forgives the parents of the shooter. She admits that she knows they are not to be blamed for their son's actions.

The meeting was a success and the two parties took their leave in a civil manner, a little healed than when they entered the room.

However, we soon see Linda, the killer's mother, coming back wanting to share a last story about her son. It was already established that Hayden, the killer, was an emotionally disturbed and depressed individual who had gone through much in his formative years and began indulging in the consumption of violent content to cope.

But the story that Linda now shares puts the whole shooting incident in context. She says that one time when Hayden was not in the best of his emotional state, he threatened to beat up his own mother when confronted with his behavior. Linda admits to Gail that she wished that she had let him do that so she could know who he really was.

The final scene of Mass was heart wrenching and gave the parents of the victims more closure than the two hours of conversation.

Mass marks a fantastic directorial debut by Fran Kranz who unearths the grief shared by the characters most sensitively without attempting to overdo it. Mass definitely deserves a big round of applause for telling a story mainly balanced on the plot and four characters.