Una

This isn't a perfect film by any stretch. It seems to stall quite a bit in its middle act, sometimes feeling like all it's doing is biding time until the third act. Still, the wonderful performances at the core keep it interesting. Rooney Mara is fascinating at internal characters like this and it's no wonder that she is perfection here. We get to feel the longing, pain, and echo of her memories in her glances throughout the film. It's a performance that relies on someone who is naturally gifted in conveying emotions under the surface and Mara is up to the task. This is definitely a film that is to be recommended.

Conventional genre movies work their magic almost entirely through manipulating stereotypes. But many powerful movies work in reverse: they deconstruct stereotypes to challenge our boundary perceptions. Themes like feminism, racism and nationalism, are regularly pulled apart to see what makes them tick. In recent years, child sexual abuse has been in the spotlight and it is overwhelmingly treated as a moral absolute. However, the film Una (2016) challenges the norm by exploring ambivalences in a case of blatant abuse. In doing so, it places the audience squarely on the judge's bench. Adapted from the acclaimed 2005 stage play Blackbird, this tense drama-thriller explores the moral ambiguities of a criminal act that occurred 15 years ago between 40-year old Ray (Ben Mendelsohn) and 13-year old Una (Mara Rooney). The emotionally immature Ray was obsessed with the lonely and precocious Una over a three-month relationship before having 'consensual' sex with her. By chance, the incident was discovered and he spent four years in jail. Since then he changed his name and has tried to restore his life. Meanwhile Una's world spiralled into an emotional void. Now 28, she has tracked him down and unexpectedly confronts him at the factory where he works. Instead of attacking him for the abuse, she demands to know why he abandoned her after their one night together. They continue talking beyond the factory's closing time, then she tricks another employee to take her to Ray's home where his girlfriend is hosting a party. At this point, the intensity of the factory scenes becomes diluted and the sparring inconclusive. This is an explosive mix of issues, personality and circumstance. The film consists mostly of their verbal sparring about the illegal 'affair' with dialogue ranging from hysterical, passionate to icy cool within an industrial setting that is claustrophobic and alienating. It is beyond Ray's emotional capacity to understand what Una wants, while she vacillates between wanting to restore her juvenile obsession with him and wanting to see him wallow in guilt for his crime. Every time we feel contempt for him, we see a piece of the emotional puzzle indicating human weakness but not evil. Every time we admire Una's determination to hold Ray to account, we see a glimpse of her complicity and manipulation. Mara Rooney and Ben Mendelsohn fill their characters with confusion and remorse. At the same time, they depict genuine emotional connection with each other despite the legal, emotional and moral prohibitions that still frame their lives. Their performances are brilliant. At one level, this film is about the horrendous impact on victims and the abrogation of responsibility that occurs in cases of child sexual abuse. At another, it pulls apart the stereotype of victim and abuser to shed light on how it can happen and its painful aftermath. Some audiences may be repulsed at the level of sympathy shown to the perpetrator and the implicit sharing of responsibility between a juvenile and an adult for what is entirely an adult crime. Others may be shaken by the idea that such crimes may have any moral ambiguity at all. In any case, this is brave and provocative cinema that cuts across the guilt versus innocence binary.

Half a century after the well-known Lolita of Vladimir Nabokov subtly transformed into a cinematographic masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick, Una (2016) presents the ravages of a few-months romance between a man in his forties and a 13-years-old girl. This analysis is essentially revealed through the eyes of this teenager who has become a woman particularly disturbed and confused by this past as short as devastating.

Ben Mendelsohn and Rooney Mara play excellently, with an out-of-the-ordinary decency and an exemplary sobriety. In addition, the director Benedict Andrews successfully and coldly describes the havoc of an unusual relationship that challenges morality despite a 'consent' from the teen.

This film tells the story of a woman who confronts the man who had a three month sexual relationship with her when she was thirteen years old.

"Una" deals with a forbidden love that stirs controversy and provokes thoughts. Initially Una seems to want revenge, but the events lead her to examine her true feelings and desires. The man's thoughts changes as well over the course of the evening, and this dynamic interaction keeps suspense and engagement going. What the man did was wrong, and what he is suggested to be doing at the end is very controversial. It will keep conversation going, if you watch it with friends.

Uncomfortable film to watch just because of the subject line. A woman tries to find the man who abused her when she was 13 because she is still hung on him and loves him wonders why he left her. Good cast with Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Riz Ahmed. I thought the directing was also nice in scenes the tension was nicely set up but overall the subject line was very comfortable.