Metacritic reviews

For Rooney Mara, it’s a new high, giving a performance that can only be described as extraordinary, and she makes Una a sharp, discomforting stunner.

Mendelsohn makes Ray plausibly remorseful, yet the suspicion remains that he’s as creepily self-serving as Humbert Humbert in Nabokov’s Lolita. Mara, meanwhile, is like a seared, broken Alice groping for a way out of a psychic labyrinth - hers is a fearsome performance.

An agile, vicious piece of work that’s anchored by extraordinary performances from Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn, Una maintains its grip even when swinging a bit too hard for the fences.

The film has a different though no less riveting intensity, thanks to Rooney Mara's emotionally naked performance in the title role, and unflinching support from Ben Mendelsohn.

Needless to say, Una is not an easy film to watch, in part because it deals with not just the act of pedophilia (never depicted outright) but also its consequences, exposing the raw wounds still seething long after the inappropriate relationship has ended.

Benedict Andrews Una is a meticulous beast, led by fearless performances from Ben Mendelsohn and Rooney Mara. Its unprecedented approach to the controversial subject matter at its core works splendidly, effectively churning viewers in their seats for the entire duration of the film.

For a feature debut, Una is bursting with exceptional confidence and style. The aesthetic is Jonathan Glazer meets Andrea Arnold and it assures that some of the script’s more staged scenes hold your attention.

It’s a film to see for the performances, which are faultless, but while it’s sometimes riveting this play has been awkwardly translated to screen.

Una keeps drifting away into flashy and superfluous details.

Mara and Mendelsohn have a compellingly toxic chemistry together and their initial confrontation is intriguingly tense. But once we’re locked into the meat of the story, the film has nowhere else to go, at least anywhere that’s of interest and the pace becomes laborious as their discussions turn repetitive.