Deborah Ross

Moral maze

The film is also compelling, with fearless performances from Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn

issue 02 September 2017

Una is a psychological drama about a woman who was abused by a man when she was 12, and who confronts him 15 years later, and it’s a hoot. I’m toying with you. Of course it isn’t. It’s disquieting. It’s disturbing. It’s difficult. It’s 90 minutes of uncomfortably shifting in your chair and wishing you were at the latest heist caper that doesn’t make sense. But it is also compelling, up to a point, and your responses will be so complicated that you won’t know where to start unpicking them. Or how.

The film is based on the play Blackbird by the Scottish playwright David Harrower, which has won multiple awards and starred Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams on Broadway. A two-hander originally, here the cast has been expanded to include other characters, while the external world has been expanded beyond one room, as would have to happen if you’re not simply going to plonk a camera in front of the play and call it a day.

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