Are there many other actors working today as fascinating to watch as Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn? Always pushing themselves further with each role they take on, Mara and Mendelsohn have both built their own legacies with their seemingly endless talent and dedication to craft. So to have them both in the same film together is a tantalising recipe for sheer brilliance. And while Una, Benedict Andrews’ adaptation of the play Blackbird by David Harrower, doesn’t quite approach it’s potential for brilliance, the dynamic pair of Mara and Mendelsohn make for a compelling and utterly gripping psychological drama, commanding the screen at every turn.
Mara is our titular Una. Una is abused as a young girl after getting into a strange friendship with Mendelsohn’s Ray. Ray does his time (4 years!) and is allowed to start a fresh new life with a wife and manager position at a warehouse. Una’s life, meanwhile, has been destroyed thanks to those traumatic events. To her surprise, she comes across a picture of Ray in the local paper, posing at his workplace. Una decides to track down Ray (who now goes by Pete). She turns up at his workplace, sending shockwaves through Ray. What follows is a complex dance of morality, forcing the audience to question their own measures of empathy and morality.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Una is that very dance of morality that pulses through much of the film.Una doesn’t break a great deal of new ground as far as its subject matter, but it stands out among its like-minded brethren as a result ofthe depth it digs into in regard to the people at its centre. Ray has convinced himself that he is not “one of those people”, and puts that down to the fact that he legitimately loved Una despite her age. Una, meanwhile, has obviously become a broken person after those traumatic events. In a subtle touch on male privilege, she understandable finds it hard to swallow the fact that Ray has rebuilt his life while hers has forever been destroyed. And yet, she is so broken that she can’t help but feel a strange sense of connection with Ray, questioning whether or not he is actually her soulmate.
Harrower’s adapted script can be lauded for this, but its addedlayer of depth comes from its exceptional performances. Mendelsohn has built his reputation on his compelling portrayals of morally complex bad guys. With this particular bad guy, he goes even deeper than usual, infusing Ray with moments of strange nuance. Ray is undeniably a monster, so you don’t exactly feel sorry for him, but you’re unnervinglyplaced in a slightly empathetic position that cause you to, at least for a moment, second guess what is going on. Mara is equally as compelling, drawing us deeper into Una’s struggle for her own humanity and self-acceptance. Una’s fear and trauma is seen all over her face through every moment thanks to Mara’s subtly expressive performance.
Una is less successful when its focus shifts from its leads. Its subplot about a bungled business venture is underdeveloped and somewhat distracting. It’s almost as if the screenwriter felt they needed to pad the film out with something other than the dynamic between Una and Ray. Yet at the same time, there are quite a few moments where (perhaps inevitably) it feels too stagey, jumping from different rooms and locations for the sake of the image not getting too uninteresting. The supporting characters are similarly underdeveloped to the point of distraction, particularly (the otherwise excellent) Riz Ahmed, who deserved a much more substantial role. It also occasionally trips over its own feet, making things feel significantly uneven as it attempts to juggle the genuinely gripping moments with the less gripping ones. It should soar higher than it does, and the final result should be way more impactful than it actually is.
Still, Una works immensely as both an interesting exploration into human morality as well as working as a fantastic displayfor its lead actors’ infallible skillset. It’s an uncomfortable but commanding watch, yet again proving (as if it needed any more proof) Mendelsohn and Mara as two of the most exciting actors in the game.