When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man's workplace,
looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel his new
life. Their confrontation will uncover buried memories and unspeakable
desires. It will shake them both to the core.This is what we can see in the high discussed movie about the sexual abuse of
UNA (International Title) / UNA AND RAY (Title for Europe)
TRAILER
WARNING - THE TRAILER CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT AND IS R-RATED!
Director:
Benedict AndrewsWriter:
David Harrower (based on his play "Blackbird")Stars:
REVIEW:
STORYLINE
Una's running time is about 94 minutes, it is a Drama, the movie PG-13 rated, which is not enough for the scenes we can see and especially when you look at the background of the movie (later one more about it) and tell the story of Una, who is 13 years and starts to have an affair with Ray, who is already at the end of 30s, and this connection between these, which is not only based on paedophile should have been something special, but it turns out completely different. Ray was sent to prison for 4 years, when we comes back to freedom, he changes his name, has a new family and tries to live a normal, meanwhile Una cannot change her name. Contempted by her family, always with the feeling to be an outsider, she has a life as a victim, and each day feels like a punishment. 15 years later she discovers a way to see Ray again, to visit his working place, and so the movie creates not only a journey into the past, and the movie is always playing with flashbacks, the movie is also dealing with important facts and topics like sexual abuse of children, and that is why the movie is powerful, it is not easy to watch, and it great to see how it deals with the interwoven of different feelings, which are placed the way that you notice, that different topics cannot be separated.
So the movie is powerful, the cast and acting is more than awesome and overwhelming, it is a powerful movie, even though it is a off stream movie, in most of Asian countries blacklisted, it was only streamed in Singapore, and starts in Europe on March 30, 2017, even thoug the movie is almost one year old, but it is off season.
Let us talk about the CAST. Ronney Mara is Una. She is absolutely awesome in her performance. She has to show what kind of abuse happened to her, and she to shows us her pain, her suffering, and her way of finding answers like why, what happened to me, why did Ray suddenly disappear, and what kind of influence has the sexual abuse of her and for her family. She is also showing us her own definition of love, and what is means for her during the 15 years, when she did not see Ray. She has to show what this criminal abuse made with her body and soul, and what it means to transport the message of her personnel abuse into a public topic. In all points of her acting she is convincing, she is true to herself, she is a strong actor, and does it is a powerful and great way of acting.
Same for Ben Mendelsohn who is Ray / Peter because he has a new name after getting out of prison. The movie show how it is to be an offender but also a victim, especially when he is in prison. He is a victim not only in public eyes, but also for himself, and he keeps on asking himself: can I still live with that feeling, even though he knows that he did a crime, and he was judged for that.
So both history of both people is placed on the screen, and this is a new constellation, because usually we can see, how to analyse the crime, how to find out information about victims and offenders and how these people have to deal with that what happened, but in Una, we have a connection of those topics and so both, Una and Ray, show us their POV and what they have to go through is strange to see and to be hones I did not see that before. So the movie asks also about the fact if it is right or wrong to talk about it and combine those aspects of crime.
The CAMERA is most of the time showing cold and freezy pictures. It also shows the sexual crime, the way of dealing with that and is sometimes offending in her way showing the people's emotions.
The SETTING is most of the time at Ray's work and also the past of Una and Ray.
There is most of time no MUSIC in the movie, meaning an inner scream of the people.
The movie has no EFFECTS, only a few flashbacks.
What I like about the movie:
It is the a very strict and seldom mentioned topic in movies, and the telling is good as well as good reflected. The performance of the actors is awesome, we have a setting which creates a feeling of unbelievable of what happened, but it is also a very catching movie, especially when it comes up to the point, when Una and Ray meet each other again, and what happened in the past, why are the figures still conected to each other, and why is Una still amazed by Ray, and those impressions, which cannot show a border or limit between different things, but topics are connected, because they belong together, and so it shows how hard life is, resuilts in a chaos of being a victim and the desires of both actors, and the social consense, that it is not okay what happened, so we still can discus more about the movie but a very good played movie.
What I do not like about the movie:
The is a tough topic, this is a warning, because the movie is not showing explicit sexual acts, which would be too much, but because of the facts, that the camera shows what happens in our own mind, it wants to create a kind of mindfuck settings, and you have to ready and prepared for this. You have to except what happens in the movie, and this can be stressful.
All in all this is a movie for those who have and had to deal with this topic. This one here is something very special.
For its genre and because of the openminded and discussed facts I give Una 9.5 points of 10 for being a Drama.
Overall a more than great movie also 9.5 out of 10 points and so you have to watch this one, and I was catched, I felt the pain of Una and Ray, and was in the scenes and settings in very single second. Have fun watching it, and thanks for reading this review of Una, in cinemas on March 30, 2017 in Europe, but also available on DVD and Blu-Ray already, and have fun watching movies.
