There are few young actresses more reliable right now than Rooney Mara. Since she broke out with a striking performance in a couple of scenes of “The Social Network,” she’s had pretty terrific taste in projects, working with big-name directors like David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Steven Soderbergh, and delivering gorgeous performances like the ones in “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” and “Carol” (we’ll forgive her whitewashed performance in the nightmarish “Pan”).
There are few character actors more compelling right now than Ben Mendelsohn. A veteran actor in Australia, he introduced himself to the world scene with a tremendous performance in “Animal Kingdom,” and has since proven to be often one of the best things in anything he’s in, whether as a feckless junkie in Andrew Dominik’s “Killing Them Softly,” a hard-edged prison dad in “Starred Up,” or a down-on-his-luck poker player in “Mississsippi Grind,” let alone a couple of Emmy nominations for Netflix show “Bloodline.”
So the news that they’ve worked together, in drama “Una,” should be exciting for anyone, and the evidence backs that up, with the first clip from the movie, which you can watch below (and which features bonus Riz Ahmed from “The Night Of” too). Based on David Harrower’s “Blackbird,” it sees Mara play a young woman who confronts the man who, years earlier, sexually abused her as a 13-year-old.
As directed by first-time feature helmer Benedict Andrews, it’s undoubtedly tough material and has its flaws, according to Greg’s Telluride review, but neither of them are the performances, with the “most vulnerable” turn that Mara has ever given, and “yet another strong” performance from Mendelsohn. Take a look at the clip below, and you can check the film out when it’s released some time in the future.