Sexual molestation of children is a cardinal sin, but Benedict Andrews refuses to serve up the absolute judgement straight away. In this brilliant movie Una, this moral crime is swept under the shadow of the delicate, poignant portrait of a young woman, Una (Zooey Mara). The story begins with Una tracking down her former lover Ray (Ben Mendelsohn), demanding an answer to move on. However, instead of witnessing the journey of her transformation, the audience is left stranded with Una in her secluded world of pain, disorientation, vengeance and an obsession with a bygone passion.
At the age of 12, Una relinquishes her innocence for an illicit romance with the middle-aged neighbour Ray. After their first conjugal night, the affair is exposed and Ray is taken to court. Many years after, the perpetrator has regained his foothold in life but the victim still fixates on the past, waiting for a resolution to redeem her. As Una pays an unannounced visit at Ray's workplace, it quickly escalates into a messy, complicated altercation which oscillates between seduction and vengeful condemnation; the story of their former affair is pieced together by constant flashbacks to the past.
The acting by the pair is top-notch, but Ruby Stokes playing the precocious, teenaged Una delivers also a vivid, mature performance. My personal favorite is the solo act by Ruby Stokes sitting mutely in front of the court camera. The teenager in the aftermath of a love lost expresses a plethora of emotions - defiant, unapologetic, troubled but unwavered. The staunch allegiance to the love that she claims makes it hard to take this affair as another blatant crime because if it is indeed a crime, Una is guilty of volunteering herself to be an accomplice. It is very wise to set the reunion in a sterile, claustrophobic warehouse. The multi-storey shelves, the rooms, the corridors, the cubicles in the toilet reflects not only the symbolic maze the pair is lost in but also resembles the memory banks where secrets and pasts are stored and hidden, impossible to get rid of. Una is a soul that needs help, but she takes the wrong step to venture into the traumatic past again where salvation is unavailable.
"You are the only one" - says Ray to Una in the last scene of the movie. Una in its Latin root means the one. It is unsettling to hear a confession of love from the perpetrator because such assurance does more to cement the trappings of the internal world she lives in than set her free.
At the age of 12, Una relinquishes her innocence for an illicit romance with the middle-aged neighbour Ray. After their first conjugal night, the affair is exposed and Ray is taken to court. Many years after, the perpetrator has regained his foothold in life but the victim still fixates on the past, waiting for a resolution to redeem her. As Una pays an unannounced visit at Ray's workplace, it quickly escalates into a messy, complicated altercation which oscillates between seduction and vengeful condemnation; the story of their former affair is pieced together by constant flashbacks to the past.
The acting by the pair is top-notch, but Ruby Stokes playing the precocious, teenaged Una delivers also a vivid, mature performance. My personal favorite is the solo act by Ruby Stokes sitting mutely in front of the court camera. The teenager in the aftermath of a love lost expresses a plethora of emotions - defiant, unapologetic, troubled but unwavered. The staunch allegiance to the love that she claims makes it hard to take this affair as another blatant crime because if it is indeed a crime, Una is guilty of volunteering herself to be an accomplice. It is very wise to set the reunion in a sterile, claustrophobic warehouse. The multi-storey shelves, the rooms, the corridors, the cubicles in the toilet reflects not only the symbolic maze the pair is lost in but also resembles the memory banks where secrets and pasts are stored and hidden, impossible to get rid of. Una is a soul that needs help, but she takes the wrong step to venture into the traumatic past again where salvation is unavailable.
"You are the only one" - says Ray to Una in the last scene of the movie. Una in its Latin root means the one. It is unsettling to hear a confession of love from the perpetrator because such assurance does more to cement the trappings of the internal world she lives in than set her free.
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