Alternate Best Actor 2021: Jason Isaacs & Reed Birney in Mass

Jason Isaacs did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning and being nominated for a few minor awards, for portraying Jay nor did Reed Birney, despite being nominated for a Gotham award, for portraying Richard in Mass. 

Mass, other than the first 15 perfunctory minutes that add nothing to the film and just should've been cut, is a powerful film that depicts the conversation years after a school shooting between two sets of parents, one the parents of a victim, the other the parents of the shooter. 

Jason Isaacs and Reed Birney play the two fathers in this tragic equation, Isaacs portraying Jay the father of the victim, and Birney as the father of the shooter. The mothers being Jay's wife Gail (Martha Plimpton) and Richard's ex-wife Linda (Ann Dowd). And as much as there is that specific separation that defines each person, what each performance at the center of it is illustrating is a different way an individual may handle a traumatic event. The juxtaposition of the two fathers is especially potent material, particularly realized by these two actors. Isaacs is an actor I have covered previously for performances that are more performative for the lack of better word, as he played characters with a touch of flamboyance one way or another. This is a polar opposite of that, other than his convincing American accent, in portraying this grieving dad as just bluntly a realistically as possible. Isaacs granting an immediate sense of Jay as he and his wife approach the church where the meeting will take place. Isaacs wears the grief within him. Even when mostly calm there's that glint of pain still in his eyes of a man who has the scars of this trauma, and will not lose them. This is in contrast to Reed Birney's initial portrayal of Richard, who we get slightly less perspective of as we don't meet him until the meeting starts, who presents Richard as an adjusted individual who if you were having a passing conversation with you'd probably think of nothing about him. That isn't to say Birney isn't doing anything, in fact he's doing a whole lot, as Birney's presentation of this adjustment is in a  way too assured, too blank faced at times, almost as a man who has crafted this state for himself. 

I think it is important to note really how brilliant all four actors are in giving a sense of the relationship between each other even though little dialogue is devoted to this. With Isaacs and Plimpton you sense a connection, but a connection burdened by their mutual trauma. There is a loving support one can sense as they speak before entering the church, but even then there is still a terrible weight upon them. Both granting the sense of people staying together in their pain as their only avenue of solace in a way. This is opposed to Birney and Dowd who interact not far from strangers, right down to the way Birney says "Linda" so formally as they make their generalized pleasantries. Although there really isn't a word said about it, you get a strong sense from their performances the settled state of separation between the two of them. They can be in the presence of one another almost seemingly because they are so broken off from one another in their interactions. Where there are the moments of Isaacs and Plimpton speaking of their living daughter and their deceased son, it is with a sense of connected parenting between the two. It is their children together just within the way each speaks within their performances and look upon another. With Dowd and Birney there is never the sense of connection even when speaking about their living son or their deceased son. They take turns in a way even when making the same point, and show two people who have irrevocably revoked their familial connection emotionally. 

Isaacs and Birney's performance often provide powerful contrasting states one of the first being when the two speak about what Jay has done since the tragedy; noting Jay's anti-firearm activism. Although in a certain sense one of their more impersonal discussion points, both Isaacs and Birney illustrate so effectively the differing methods of dealing with this trauma. Isaacs when speaking about this carries a striking, if withdrawn for the sake of cordiality, aggression when speaking about his activism. It is with an intensity and need for action regarding the idea. Isaacs presenting each word in this regard as a statement that is an act, and act to in a way live up to what happened to his son by taking action against what he sees as part of the cause of it. This even when reasoning against others calling it not being part of the issue, Isaacs's performance carries it with a potent certainty of the man who passionately believes in his cause and will not deflect against any issue related to his son's death. Birney is as brilliant in a way by showing a man very much deflecting against the issue as he speaks to the cause instead being mental health as the greater issue. Although as Isaacs shows the passion for action as part of the results of his trauma, Birney successfully shows this sort of detached reasoning also part of his same trauma. When Birney speaks initially that there can be no change to literally rid himself of his failure, Birney's particular calm in his delivery is such sterling work, because it isn't callousness that he presents. It is rather a specific defense mechanism of establishing guilt so directly, yet moving on from that guilt as the only way to reckon with his continued existence. 

Their contrasting styles between Birney and Isaacs is especially captivating to watch, as both actors so well portray not only these states but what the states are often alluding to. Early in the conversation as Jay seeks the "why?" from the parents of the shooter both in terms of his motivation and the parents apparent lack of action. There is such a power to Isaacs's performance as he brings that directness into each word, he prods with his words looking for more information. Isaacs brings this demanding quality, though demanding while his eyes always still convey the sense of grief within the demand. Isaacs makes it a need and is cutting in every extra question of the father who wants answers even if there may simply not be one. The way Isaacs even physical engages is remarkable, as he dodges from a direct stare looking for that answer, but frequently looks away clearly in pain from what the two people in front of him represent to him. Birney's performance is fascinating because he is in a way as direct by being in a way so indirect. Birney delivers his words with this precision of someone who has long reasoned out these questions himself therefore has a defense or answer for every question. Birney's answers are delivered with this confidence that is off-putting but in a way Birney reveals that this too comes from a place of pain through the detachment we see. Birney's voice is so assured it isn't from someone who doesn't care about what his son has done, yet was once so overwhelmed that his tone is basically the only way in which he can exist as he currently does. 

The truth of both men is most revealed when the two discuss the literal events and the timeline of the day. Isaacs is truly heartbreaking as he loses even any aggression and the grief that was always bubbling within the man comes fully to the surface. Isaacs's delivery is nothing but pure devastation. The way he speaks is as a man who can barely say the words because they bring so much pain as he recounts the death of his son. Isaacs is truly powerful by just bluntly revealing all the sadness in the man in a moment. Birney in the same conversation describes the events down the line as though a computer describing the incident. In that though the sense that Richard has gone over the information as much as Jay, but just is dealing it with it in his own way. The true is revealed at the end of this speech but also through brief moments throughout Birney's performance. The briefest moments where his defense mechanism of trying to logically distant himself from his pain seems to fail him and the searing pain reveals itself. Birney's work showing in these brief moments of reaction or his ending of the speech by describing looking at the room after the shooting, Birney reveals just how much pain is filled with the man as well, a pain he has dealt with by an attempt at separation. Every break though from this is harrowing in Birney's work as his expression shows the grief well up even if for a moment as intensely as Isaacs, but in a microcosm. Birney is also devastating by crafting instead what is really a facade that isn't out of callousness, but rather resulting from the same trauma. Both actors are incredible together by articulating each man's emotions so potently, yet so differently, however each express how these men both were permanently damaged from the same wounding event. 

 

One of Isaacs's most powerful moments though actually is in a moment where he largely doesn't say much, this is when really Gail says her piece which starts with so warmly remembering her son, and Isaacs's expression wholly conveys the warm old affection for the memory though the pain still feels raw in there in the moment. As Gail continues to speak and essentially saying they need to move on from the event to live and find love again, Isaacs is once again absolutely heartbreaking in showing all the grief pour at again, though differently now as we see it less from the suffering and more so this moment of understanding and sympathizing with his wife's pain. Although less focused upon in the scene Birney is still excellent as his reaction is basically one of the few moments where we see he cannot rationalize and in his face you see the man holding back his tongue and for once accepting the moment without his input. When they have a moment of silence together Birney's expression breaks down to pain just for a glimpse, before his really overly straight and formal, yet utterly perfect in terms of portraying the character, as Richard says he hoped they helped Gail and Jay through this conversation. We see the man returning to as he was in living with the event by creating as much distance emotionally from it as he can. This is opposed to Isaacs final moments that are truly moving in showing the man's still living in such pain yet there is just in his expression now less anger and aggression and instead a glint of hope. This most pointedly being expressed as Gail and Jay hear the choir practice begin in the church, and Isaacs is truly heart wrenching in revealing all that the man has gone through in his eyes yet now with some poignant sense of aspiration now towards life it seems. Although Reed Birney enters last and leaves first, one should not take his performance for granted, as his calmer work is as essential to the piece as Isaacs's raw emotional turn. The contrasting nature of their performances creates so much of the captivating power of the film, and in revealing the contrast of their characters is what provides the film's needed narrative thrust. As much as individually Birney, Isaacs, Plimpton and Dowd all give great performances, it is their work as a collective that crafts the true harrowing impact of this film.