Steineded How sad is this?

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Yvonne Jodi Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Raven-1969 Fifteen years after the crime and Ray still pulls at the heartstrings of Una. It is the shadow of love, a brutal charm and broken promise that brings her back to confront him in search of answers. In flashbacks to a Ferris wheel, courtroom and cottage by the seashore, the emotional carnage of two fractured lives is gradually revealed. Una struggles to find meaning in the answers provided by Ray as well as those from inside her heart. This character driven psychological thriller stars Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. Each actor specializes and excels in such roles about damaged psyches, and they continue to shine here. Wonderful cinematography, direction and music contribute to heighten the emotional impact of the story. The film is based on the play Blackbird by David Harrower. Just released to Netflix snail mail catalog.

Howard Schumann In Una, the powerful screen adaptation of David Harrower's play "Blackbird" about the sexual abuse of a thirteen-year-old girl, Australian director Benedict Andrews does what has become increasingly uncommon in modern cinema – he makes us think. While it may be uncomfortable to look outside of the reassuring categories of victim and victimizer, Andrews asks us to look at his characters not as symbols but as damaged human beings who are seeking to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and re-mold them into a coherent and functioning whole.Rooney Mara ("Song to Song") is impeccable as Una, a 28-year-old woman who still has confused feelings about Ray (Ben Mendelsohn, "Slow West"), the neighbor she had an affair with when she was thirteen, but who abandoned her after promising to take her away with him. Written by David Harrower and backed by an effective score by Jed Kurzel ("The Babadook"), the film does not attempt to justify Ray's actions, making it clear that Una was clearly below the age of consent and that Ray should have known that what he was doing was wrong.In numerous inter-cutting flashbacks, Andrews shows the events that led us to the present day. The film opens as the teenage Una is sitting quietly under a tree near her home. As remarkably performed by newcomer Ruby Stokes, Una is a bright and articulate teenager who genuinely believes she is in love with Ray, a neighbor and friend of her father. The sexual act is not shown, only the emotional consequences of the thwarted three-month relationship that leaves Una with unanswered questions. The somber atmosphere is suddenly broken with the disorienting thump of rock music amidst a sea of strobe lights as the older Una wends her way through a crowded sleazy nightclub.When she has rough sex in the bathroom with her face pressed against the bathroom mirror, we sense her rootlessness and troubled life. When she discovers Ray's picture in a trade magazine, she decides to confront him at the warehouse where he is a mid-level manager. Other than some form of closure, it is unclear exactly what she expects from the meeting. When they finally meet and immediately recognize each other, Ray, who is now married and has changed his name to Pete, has no desire to relive the past, a history that has been hidden from his family and co-workers. He tells her that he has done his time and wants to be left alone. "This is my life. I had to fight for this!" he exclaims.Una responds with barely concealed rage, telling him that her wound is one that will never heal and that he has only lost four years while she has had to pay dearly during the last fifteen years. Under Andrews' direction, Ray is sympathetic, however, and is particularly compelling in pushing back against her accusations, making it clear that he "was never one of "them," though, to his fellow inmates in prison where he served four years for statutory rape, it was apparently too subtle a distinction. To further the chaotic scene, some employees are being laid off and Ray is called on to deliver some clichés about going onward and upward but is too emotionally upset to continue.Uncomfortable around his fellow employees, Ray and Una move around the cavernous building trying to find a hiding place to continue their painful recollections and recriminations which they do with increasing intensity. Their conversation runs the gamut from violent antagonism to tenderness. At one point, it is unclear if Una wants to kill him or make love to him. One of those looking for Ray is his foreman, Scott (Riz Ahmed, "Jason Bourne") who is used by Una afterwards to insinuate herself into Ray's home life.As the focus is evenly balanced between Ray and Una, we are left floating in a sea of ambiguity which can only be resolved by the perspective of the viewer. Although Ray claims that he does not "do these things" on a regular basis, and that he loved Una for who she was and never considered her as a "target," the fact that the film shows a scene of Ray's stepdaughter going into his bedroom (innocently looking enough) perhaps provides a hint that his denials should be taken with a grain of salt.Una is a complex drama that will not appeal to everyone but whose strength does not lie in its cultural or political agenda but in its art. Una explores, in Israeli author Aharon Applefeld's words, "the darkest places of human behavior to show that even there…humanity and love can overcome cruelty and brutality." For Una, however, there is no escape from the disappointment and humiliation of a young child and there can be no closure. The assault on innocence and the assault on childhood are one and can only be transformed by a world touched by the possibility of grace.

ObscureFilmLover I watched this film last night having never heard of it. It tells about the complicated nuanced relationship between a 40 year old man, Ray, and a 12 year old girl, Una. The relationship is discovered and he goes to prison to 4 years.Fourteen years later, Una who is still living at home and is seen having very casual sex (in a restroom at a club), seeks Ray out. Although she states he abused her as a child (and he did), she is also very hurt over why he didn't return to run away with her like they had planned.She cries over him not coming back after they had sex. She searches for him. He explains he stopped off and had a drink to study his nerves and then she was gone when he returned. He searched for her and is arrested. Una appears to accept this explanation. They then undress and start to have sex. He either stops or can't do it. She asks whether he doesn't like her now that she's older.And then the twist. Stop reading now if you haven't seen the film. She buddies up to one of his co-workers and gets him to take her to a party at Ray's house. She is asked to leave but refuses. Una wanders around the house and ends up in a child's room. She falls asleep on the bed but is awoken by a young girl very similar in age and appearance to her at age 12. She leaves. Ray stops Una and assures her that she was the only one and he has no interest in the step-daughter. She walks away. Fini.The story leaves us hanging at this point. Ray is a liar who previously said his current wife knew all about his past. Later he admits she knows nothing about it. At a minimum, Una needs to tell her that her husband changed his name, abused her and went to prison for it. The fear that you're left with is that she will say nothing because she still has feelings for him.I understand the criticism about the long stretches of dialogue without much action but the movie is based on a play and the movie maker does a pretty good job of taking a lot of the staginess out of it. It appears that the stage play was one primarily of a dialogue between Una and Ray. It would appear that the film-maker used flashbacks including a younger actress playing Una to "open up" the play for film. There is also a useless subplot about the workplace where the film is set being downsized which might not be in the play as well.However, the movie is a good examination of the complicated nature of sex. Una may have very well liked the sex with Ray but it my opinion, because she was 12 and not 24 when she and Ray were together, she was damaged and remains damaged all these years later. Ray had certainly moved on at the time of the meeting but Una is still stuck with her confused feelings.

jjparish But thankfully its a British film. Although they had to have an American name as one of the stars i guess to get the requisite amount of funding. No matter as rooney mara was brilliant. She plays the adult una who just cant move on from her past. She seems to be hiding so much and its quite thrilling to realise that you just don't know what her character is going to do next. Whether she will soften or go full on psycho. Some things didn't work, like setting so much of it in the warehouse. I didn't know going in but it quickly became obvious the film had its roots in a play. Whats the point of that? They are making a feature film, not another play! Overall though this was highly watchable, tense and dramatic. 8/10