UNA
****
Director: Benedict Andrews
Principal Cast:
Rooney Mara
Ben Mendelsohn
Riz Ahmed
Ruby Stokes
Screenwriter: David Harrower (based on his play Blackbird)
Country: UK/USA/Canada
Classification: M
Runtime: 94mins.
Australian release date: 22 June 2017
Previewed at: Sydney Film Festival on 9 June 2017.
In directing Una, acclaimed Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews has swapped mediums and made his first feature film but he hasn't strayed too far from his theatrical roots - the movie is based on a play, Blackbird, by the Scottish playwright David Harrower. Furthermore, according to the film’s lead, our very own Ben Mendelsohn, the rehearsal period was exactly as it would be if they were preparing it for the theatre. “It was almost like a play, except we missed the getting to the stage and blocking out all those bits of actions”, he says. The work deals with the difficult subject of child abuse and it depicts a tense encounter that occurs 15 years after the original events have taken place. It’s bound to divide its audience.
Una (Mara Rooney) is a young woman grappling with corrosive, emotional scars from something that happened when she was 13. A photo in a trade magazine prompts her to seek out a man in the picture she knew as Ray (Mendelsohn), an ex-neighbour, and she turns up at his workplace, a vast featureless warehouse. As the pair plays a mental and physical game of cat-and-mouse in the nooks and crannies of the cavernous space, murky details from the past are dredged up and both are forced to confront their motivations. The events leading up to this unwanted (at least by Ray) and unexpected meeting are played out in flashback, with the remarkable young Ruby Stokes playing Una as a girl. As the hours pass, Una learns that Ray has changed his identity and is now married and leading a new life.
Enhancing the drama is the fact that the action is shot mostly at the close of day and the ensuing night and is largely confined to the warehouse, giving Una an enclosed, claustrophobic feel. Jed Kurzel’s unsettling score only adds to this confined atmosphere. Rooney and Mendelsohn give powerful, nuanced performances, breathing life into characters who are hard to like and difficult to judge. Positive mention must also be made of Riz Ahmed, who plays Ray’s confused work-mate Scott, caught up in the events but never really understanding what’s going on. Harrower’s script deliberately leaves us wondering, too. There’s nothing cut-and-dried about his screenplay (he adapted his own play) and you’ll leave the cinema doing some soul-searching, questioning your own attitude to the subject matter. Una is complicated and controversial and probably one of the most difficult films you’ll see all year but it’s a superior dramatic work.
Principal Cast:
Rooney Mara
Ben Mendelsohn
Riz Ahmed
Ruby Stokes
Screenwriter: David Harrower (based on his play Blackbird)
Country: UK/USA/Canada
Classification: M
Runtime: 94mins.
Australian release date: 22 June 2017
Previewed at: Sydney Film Festival on 9 June 2017.
In directing Una, acclaimed Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews has swapped mediums and made his first feature film but he hasn't strayed too far from his theatrical roots - the movie is based on a play, Blackbird, by the Scottish playwright David Harrower. Furthermore, according to the film’s lead, our very own Ben Mendelsohn, the rehearsal period was exactly as it would be if they were preparing it for the theatre. “It was almost like a play, except we missed the getting to the stage and blocking out all those bits of actions”, he says. The work deals with the difficult subject of child abuse and it depicts a tense encounter that occurs 15 years after the original events have taken place. It’s bound to divide its audience.
Una (Mara Rooney) is a young woman grappling with corrosive, emotional scars from something that happened when she was 13. A photo in a trade magazine prompts her to seek out a man in the picture she knew as Ray (Mendelsohn), an ex-neighbour, and she turns up at his workplace, a vast featureless warehouse. As the pair plays a mental and physical game of cat-and-mouse in the nooks and crannies of the cavernous space, murky details from the past are dredged up and both are forced to confront their motivations. The events leading up to this unwanted (at least by Ray) and unexpected meeting are played out in flashback, with the remarkable young Ruby Stokes playing Una as a girl. As the hours pass, Una learns that Ray has changed his identity and is now married and leading a new life.
Enhancing the drama is the fact that the action is shot mostly at the close of day and the ensuing night and is largely confined to the warehouse, giving Una an enclosed, claustrophobic feel. Jed Kurzel’s unsettling score only adds to this confined atmosphere. Rooney and Mendelsohn give powerful, nuanced performances, breathing life into characters who are hard to like and difficult to judge. Positive mention must also be made of Riz Ahmed, who plays Ray’s confused work-mate Scott, caught up in the events but never really understanding what’s going on. Harrower’s script deliberately leaves us wondering, too. There’s nothing cut-and-dried about his screenplay (he adapted his own play) and you’ll leave the cinema doing some soul-searching, questioning your own attitude to the subject matter. Una is complicated and controversial and probably one of the most difficult films you’ll see all year but it’s a superior dramatic work.