Una | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Benedict Andrews |
Screenplay by | David Harrower |
Based on | Blackbird by David Harrower |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Thimios Bakatakis |
Edited by | Nick Fenton |
Music by | Jed Kurzel |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 94 minutes [1] |
Countries |
|
Language | English |
Box office | $676,949 [2] |
Una is a 2016 drama film directed by Benedict Andrews based upon the play Blackbird by David Harrower, who also wrote the film's screenplay. It stars Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed, Ruby Stokes, Tara Fitzgerald, Natasha Little, and Tobias Menzies. The film focuses on the titular character, who confronts the man who groomed and abused her as a child many years earlier.
The film had its world premiere at the 43rd Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016. It was released in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2017, by Thunderbird Releasing and in the United States on October 6, 2017, by Swen.
A young woman, Una Spencer, goes to the office of Peter Trevelyan, a manager at a large warehouse, to his shock.
Flashbacks show that Peter used to be named Ray Brooks, and was the next-door neighbor and trusted friend of Una's father. Ray groomed the 13-year-old Una into a three month relationship. The two planned to elope to Europe, but the night before they were to take a ferry, Ray takes her virginity in a coast hotel room. He leaves the room afterwards; Una, believing he abandoned her, wanders the streets distraught and bewildered, to be returned home by police after she shares what had happened to her.
Ray is arrested and serves four years in jail for his crime. Una grows up lonely and confused, believing she was in love with Ray and feeling more hurt by him abandoning her than by his abuse. She is ostracized by her peers and her father turns violent out of rage towards Ray before he passes away years later due to an accident at home. As an adult fifteen years later, she lives with her mother and takes solace in going out for one-night stands, unable to form a lasting relationship due to the trauma of her abuse. Meanwhile, Ray, as Peter, finds success in his career and has since married. Una finds where he works through a newspaper photograph and travels to the warehouse.
After Ray brings her to the warehouse's locker room, Una, still emotionally wounded from the abuse, confronts him. Ray is dismissive and defensive and fears she may want to damage his career or even kill him. Ray leaves the room to attend a critical staff meeting, where he must announce cutbacks and layoffs to employees. Rattled by Una's presence, he instead tells his coworkers that management wanted him to generate a list of people to fire. He then leaves abruptly, and hides from angry executives and his fellow staff members.
Una finds Ray and they quarrel before reminiscing about their affair. Ray insists that he is not by nature a hebephile and was genuinely in love with her, and tells her that he is now married to a woman his age. To Una's surprise, he explains that he didn't intend to abandon her; he had needed a walk and a drink to clear his head before they would elope, but returned to find that she had left. Unable to deny their lingering attraction to one another, Una has sex with Ray, but before it goes too far, Ray abruptly leaves, leaving her feeling abandoned once again.
Ray tells his co-worker Scott, who is afraid of being laid off, to escort Una out of the warehouse. She invites herself to Scott's flat, where she seduces him. After preparing for a large party later that evening, Ray has sex with his wife Yvonne at home, but Ray does this with his eyes closed. Meanwhile, Una claims to be "Pete's" daughter, and persuades Scott to escort her to Ray's comfortable suburban home after being informed about the party.
Upon arriving at the party, Scott quickly finds out that Una was lying upon introducing herself to Yvonne, and Ray is shocked to see Scott and Una arrive. Yvonne and Una talk briefly, and Yvonne drops a hint that their marriage is not entirely happy. Una wanders upstairs, where she enters the room of Ray's 13-year-old stepdaughter and lies on her bed. The stepdaughter enters and demands an explanation why she is there. Una quickly leaves the house with Ray, Yvonne, and Scott following along. Ray approaches Una and denies her wordless accusation of possibly abusing his stepdaughter and insists again that Una was "the only one" before he kisses her in the cheek. Ray sees Yvonne, his stepdaughter, and Scott had been looking on from a distance. Realizing Ray is unapologetic, a disappointed Una leaves the party and walks off into the dark while Ray returns to his observing family and friends.
In November 2014, it was announced that Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn had been cast as Una and Ray respectively, with Benedict Andrews directing from a screenplay by David Harrower who also wrote the stage play on which the film is based. [3] With Jean Doumanian, Patrick Daly, and Maya Amsellem, producing under their Jean Doumanian Productions and West End Films banners respectively. [4] Celia Duval co-produced, with executive producers Jason Cloth, Aaron L. Gilbert under his Bron Studios banner, as well as Sharon Harel, Kevin Loader, Eve Schoukroun. [4] In May 2015, Film4 joined the film as a financier. [5] In June 2015, Indira Varma, Tara Fitzgerald, and Riz Ahmed were all confirmed to star in the film. [6] Jed Kurzel composed the film's score. [7]
Production on the film began on June 13, 2015, in the United Kingdom. [8] [9] [10] [11] Further filming locations include Dungeness, Greatstone and Lydd, in Romney Marsh, Kent which feature as a remote hideaway location. [12]
In September 2015, Variety released the first image from the film. [13] In November 2015, it was announced the film had been re-titled Una. [14] In November 2015, IndieWire released another image from the film. [15]
The film had its world premiere at the 43rd Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016. [16] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2016 [17] and the BFI London Film Festival on October 9, 2016. [18] Shortly after, Swen acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, partnering with Eammon Films handling the theatrical release. [19] Thunderbird Releasing acquired U.K. distribution rights to the film [20] and released it in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2017. [21] It was released on October 6, 2017, in the United States. [19]
Una received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 76% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 6.77/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Una's well-matched leads bring an uncomfortable story fearlessly to life, keeping the movie consistently gripping as it navigates the tricky journey from stage to screen." [22] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 62 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [23]
Kate Rooney Mara is an American actress. She is known for work in television, playing reporter Zoe Barnes in the Netflix political drama House of Cards, computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in the Fox thriller series 24 (2006), wronged mistress Hayden McClaine in the FX miniseries American Horror Story: Murder House (2011), Patty Bowes in the first season of the FX drag ball culture drama series Pose (2018), and a teacher who begins an illicit relationship with an underage student, in the FX miniseries A Teacher (2020). For the latter, she received an Independent Spirit nomination for Best New Scripted Series as an executive producer.
Joseph Wright is an English film director. His motion pictures include the literary adaptations of Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Cyrano (2021), the action thriller Hanna (2011), the Peter Pan origin story Pan (2015), and the Darkest Hour (2017), a political drama following Winston Churchill during World War II nominated for Best Picture.
Blackbird is a 2005 play written by Scottish playwright David Harrower. It was inspired in part by the crimes of sex offender Toby Studebaker, and depicts a young woman meeting a middle-aged man fifteen years after being sexually abused by him when she was twelve.
Tanner Hall is a 2009 drama film about four girls coming of age in boarding school. It was written and directed by Tatiana von Fürstenberg and Francesca Gregorini. It stars Rooney Mara, Georgia King, Brie Larson, Amy Ferguson, Tom Everett Scott, and Amy Sedaris.
Patricia Rooney Mara is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze. It marks Jonze's solo screenwriting debut. The film follows Theodore Twombly, a man who develops a relationship with Samantha, an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt. The film was dedicated to James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sendak and Adam Yauch, who all died before the film's release.
Benedict Andrews is an Australian theatre and film director, based in Reykjavík. Born in Adelaide in 1972, he was educated at Flinders University Drama Centre. His first feature film Una was released in 2016.
Song to Song is a 2017 American experimental romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring an ensemble cast including Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, and Cate Blanchett.
Carol is a 2015 historical romance film directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, and Kyle Chandler. Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.
Pan is a 2015 American fantasy film directed by Joe Wright and written by Jason Fuchs. The film is a prequel to the 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, released in novel form in 1911 as Peter and Wendy, by Scottish author J. M. Barrie, and focuses on the origin story for Peter Pan and Captain Hook. It stars Hugh Jackman as a fictionalized version of Blackbeard, Garrett Hedlund as Hook, Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, and Levi Miller as Peter Pan.
Song of the Sea is a 2014 animated fantasy film directed and co-produced by Tomm Moore, co-produced by Ross Murray, Paul Young, Stephen Roelants, Serge and Marc Ume, Isabelle Truc, Clement Calvet, Jeremie Fajner, Frederik Villumsen, and Claus Toksvig Kjaer, and written by Will Collins from Moore's story. An international co-production between the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France and Luxembourg, it is the second feature film by Cartoon Saloon. The film is the second instalment of Moore's "Irish Folklore Trilogy", following his previous film The Secret of Kells (2009) and preceding the film Wolfwalkers (2020). It is also the only one to be set in contemporary times, as the aforementioned two films take place during the Middle Ages and the 17th century respectively.
Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American stop-motion animated action fantasy film produced by Laika. It is directed by Travis Knight with a screenplay by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler from a story by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes, and it stars the voice roles of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Vaccaro, Rooney Mara, and Matthew McConaughey. Set in feudal Japan, the film revolves around Kubo, a young boy who wields a magical shamisen and whose left eye was stolen during infancy. Accompanied by an anthropomorphic snow monkey and stag beetle, he must embark on a quest to defeat his mother's evil twin sisters, Washi and Karasu, and his power-hungry grandfather, the Moon King, who is responsible for stealing his left eye.
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis from a screenplay by Luke Davies based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. The film stars Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman, as well as Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It tells the true story of how Brierley, 25 years after being separated from his family in India, sets out to find them. It was a joint production between Australia and the United Kingdom.
The Secret Scripture is an Irish film, directed by Jim Sheridan from a screenplay by Sheridan and Johnny Ferguson, which is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Sebastian Barry. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, Theo James, Aidan Turner, and Jack Reynor.
The Discovery is a 2017 British-American romantic science fiction film, directed by Charlie McDowell from a screenplay by himself and Justin Lader. It stars Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, Robert Redford, Jesse Plemons, Riley Keough, and Ron Canada.
Mary Magdalene is a 2018 biblical drama film about the woman of the same name, written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett and directed by Garth Davis. It stars Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Tahar Rahim.
Untogether is an American drama film written and directed by Emma Forrest. Her directorial debut, it stars Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, Lola Kirke and Jemima Kirke. The film centers on a recovering addict who attempts to get her writing career back on track.
Thelma is a 2017 supernatural thriller drama film directed by Joachim Trier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eskil Vogt. The film stars Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen, and Ellen Dorrit Petersen. Thelma tells the story of a sheltered young woman who discovers she has an inexplicable power that materializes when she feels desire for a female student at her university.
Vox Lux is a 2018 American musical drama film written and directed by Brady Corbet, from a story by Corbet and Mona Fastvold. The film stars Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin and Jennifer Ehle.
Thimios Bakatakis is a Greek cinematographer. He has served as a cinematographer for various feature films, short films, music videos, and commercials, often collaborating with director Yorgos Lanthimos on his projects.