Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn gripping in ‘Una’
Diving right into brutal, ugly subject matter, “Una” is tough to watch but worth it.
That’s due almost entirely to searing performances by Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. Benedict Andrews directs the film; David Harrower adapted his play “Blackbird” for the screen. If at times its stage roots are obvious — as are some attempts to expand the story — it doesn’t really matter. When Mara and Mendelsohn are on-screen, all other complaints fall away.
Mara plays the title character (played by Ruby Stokes as a girl in flashbacks). When she was 13, her neighbor, Ray, her father’s friend, seduced her. Except it’s not seduction when he is an adult and she is a child; it’s molestation. But Ray claimed that he was in love with her, and made plans for the two of them to run away together.
The plans fall through and Ray goes to prison. Years later, Una finds a picture of Ray — only now he’s Peter, with a family in a different town, working at a good job, supervising some sort of plant. Una is stunned and decides to drop in on Ray/Peter at work.
He’s stunned, too. Una is damaged, shattered, really, but she lays out her feelings and her pain to Ray — she wants him to see what he did to her. The back-and-forth is riveting. It’s also occasionally diluted by a separate workplace drama. Corporate honchos are announcing layoffs, and Ray is expected to give the typical empty speech of encouragement to rattled workers. Rattled himself by Una’s visit, Ray goes in a far-different direction.
Riz Ahmed also appears as one of the people working for Peter, as he knows him; he will become involved with his boss and Una in a way even Ray doesn’t seem to believe.
Those concerns melt away whenever Mara and Mendelsohn share scenes (and often when they’re alone, or interacting with other characters). We see evidence of the devastation Ray caused but it’s when she talks to Ray about the cost to her psyche that Mara really shines. The pain in her eyes alone speaks volumes, yet she will no longer be silenced. But then what?
Mendelsohn is also outstanding. His Ray still believes that he really loved Una, and he seems remorseful, eager to tell Una that he is not the same person. And yet with every justification he utters, we think maybe he is. To Mendelsohn’s credit, he brings enough humanity to the character that it’s difficult to be sure either way.