Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

dingane I think most of the negative comments I read here are people mad at two things. First, they're mad that Una herself seems ambivalent about the relationship she at 13 with this man. Part of her is mad at Ray, but part of her clearly misses him. It even kind of looks like maybe she's only mad because he left her, not because he statutorily raped her. Second, it allows Ray the space to say that he's not really a pedophile, but just loved this particular girl at that time. It clearly wants the viewer to consider whether this was a truly loving relationship that was only complicated by the age issue. People justifiably do not want to consider such a thing and, if you're like my wife, turned it off. I came back to finish it because I was interested to see how it was going to resolve. And the acting and cinematography are phenomenal.Here's where the movie saves itself and proves it isn't what my wife thought it was.You get your first glimpse at true Ray in the warehouse when he starts saying stuff to Una like "You were just so wise for your years." That's the kind of manipulative crap that pedophiles use to "groom" their victims. It harkens back to past pedophile Ray. It passes quickly, but it's clear that there's more to Ray than he's been showing us.I'm skipping a bunch. In the end, they go to a garden party at Ray's house where Una discovers that he married a woman who has her own very cute 13 year old daughter. Suddenly Ray sees that he's in danger. He follows Una out and starts telling her again how special she was and how he's never been attracted to another young girl etc. He's clearly full of shit. At that moment, Una realizes that he's been full of shit for however many years. She realizes how stupid she's been for holding a candle for this guy, and she leaves, feeling disgusted. Ray turns around and everyone saw *something* happen. He's got some explaining to do and it's probably not going to go well for him.But here's why I love this movie. It turns the *viewer* into Una. At the beginning we're thinking this guy is a creepo, but maybe it was just this momentary thing and he's not *really* a pedophile. Maybe he even really loved her, even if having sex with her was wrong. The film forces us into Una's ambivalence. It's only in the last few moments that we do a 180 along with Una. She and the viewer realize in the same moment that Ray is and always has been a predator.If you don't watch it until the end, you might think it's defending statutory rape. It's not. It's just trying to take you on a journey with a woman who is still on a hard journey, processing her abuse. For that reason, it's a powerful film

The Couchpotatoes Una is a movie about a sensitive subject. Personally I just don't like to watch a movie about a pedophile, and certainly not if that pedophile does not getting beaten up or worse. In Una it's even quite the opposite as Una doesn't look bothered being sexually assaulted when she was thirteen. You could think she has the Stockholm Syndrome, but even that isn't true. The story is slow and a bit boring. The acting though isn't bad. The young and old Una being played by Ruby Stokes and Rooney Mara are both good performances and the pedophile Ray played by Ben Mendelsohn is also not bad acting. To me the story is just not interesting enough to make this a good movie.

billcr12 This is not Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel turned into Stanley Kubrick's great film. Instead we have Rooney Mara(Una) as a late twenty something woman confronting a 50-ish man at his factory job somewhere in England. Flashbacks show a preteen Una becoming involved first as a friend and shortly later as a sexual conquest of her neighbor Ray. He has changed his name to Peter after a four year jail stint and is now married to an age appropriate woman. Una wants to know why he took advantage of her youthful innocence. He proclaims that it was true love and Una and the audience will be quite skeptical of his intentions. Several teary eyed scenes follow and the ending is not all that compelling. Rooney is believable as the disturbed young lady and she has no problem removing her clothes. As referenced earlier, Una does not come close to the depth and quality of "Lolita."

fawn_jane Going in, I thought this would be a revenge movie or something. I kept waiting for the twist, for the "something", but it never came. The dialogue is maudlin yet tedious, the characters act nothing like real people would behave in that situation. Character development or plot arcs nowhere in sight.Instead the movie plods along, slowly and nauseatingly recounting the sordid yet mundane history of the relationship of the main characters. Nostalgic, sentimentalized shots of pedo and little girl at the park as the wind blows through the grass, pedo and the little girl at the amusement park on the ferris wheel, pedo and little girl in the bedroom, a wistful shot of their fingers intertwined. Nothing graphic, but still, it's totally absurd. How did this movie even get greenlit?