Una

A young woman, played by Rooney Mara, tracks down an older man from her past, played by Ben Mendelsohn, to confront him. About what, we initially don’t know. The plot unfolds through that confrontation and their conversations over the course of a single evening. What transpires is a topic difficult and uncomfortable to portray – that of pedophilia.

When she was a 13-year-old girl, they had an affair. He was a neighbour and trusted friend of her father’s. She now seeks an explanation and some sort of closure, threatening to derail his new life and future, as she tries to make sense of his actions.

It’s a difficult watch, at times, as one squirms at some of the detail and revelations. What is brilliant is that we are in the rare situation of being invited into this intimate and raw conversation, ourselves trying to understand the actions of the past.

This is a dialogue, performance-driven piece, and though based on a piece of theatre, its form as a film does not go amis. The cinematography is beautiful in its subtlety and the slow burn pacing is evocative of the pain, frustration and wrenching tension both characters are suffering.

These kind of low-budget performance indies unfortunately get overlooked for the more popular awards season, but Mara and Mendelsohn are exemplary in their craft here. Not a single minute of screen time or line of dialogue is wasted. Every moment serves to build the tension that slowly unfolds as we wonder what these people’s fates might be, never knowing what they they might say or do next.

Classy, exquisite, gripping, and voyeuristic, it is also insightful.