My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library.Many viewers will feel uncomfortable with the subject, a 3-month affair between an adult man and his neighbor, a 13-yr-old girl. However it is done with enough sensitivity that everything is merely suggested, along with dialog that explains what happened.Set and filmed in England, essentially 15 years later, now 28-yr-old Una looks up the man she had been intimate with, he had served his time and had changed his name, was now married and had a good job as a supervisor. She is intrusive, she is demanding, she had cared for the man and never got over what she considered abandonment when they decided to travel to Europe together.The story plays out to show how the bad decisions made those years earlier had wrecked the life of the young girl into her adulthood, and how now is came back to haunt him. This is fiction but these types of stories really happen, we learn about them on the news all too often.Ruby Stokes is really good as the young Una while Rooney Mara shines as the adult Una. Ben Mendelsohn is also very effective as the man, Ray, who changed his name to Peter. No pun intended, I suppose.

If you were sexually abused as a child or teen, this movie could cause flashbacks or, in my case, downright sickness.To me it was unrealistic as to what the effects of that abuse can be--but then I realized who am I to judge how another abused child would react or behave as an adult? At the same time I cannot imagine a victim kissing her aviser.

Fifteen years after the crime and Ray still pulls at the heartstrings of Una. It is the shadow of love, a brutal charm and broken promise that brings her back to confront him in search of answers. In flashbacks to a Ferris wheel, courtroom and cottage by the seashore, the emotional carnage of two fractured lives is gradually revealed. Una struggles to find meaning in the answers provided by Ray as well as those from inside her heart. This character driven psychological thriller stars Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn. Each actor specializes and excels in such roles about damaged psyches, and they continue to shine here. Wonderful cinematography, direction and music contribute to heighten the emotional impact of the story. The film is based on the play Blackbird by David Harrower. Just released to Netflix snail mail catalog.

I watched this film last night having never heard of it. It tells about the complicated nuanced relationship between a 40 year old man, Ray, and a 12 year old girl, Una. The relationship is discovered and he goes to prison to 4 years.Fourteen years later, Una who is still living at home and is seen having very casual sex (in a restroom at a club), seeks Ray out. Although she states he abused her as a child (and he did), she is also very hurt over why he didn't return to run away with her like they had planned.She cries over him not coming back after they had sex. She searches for him. He explains he stopped off and had a drink to study his nerves and then she was gone when he returned. He searched for her and is arrested. Una appears to accept this explanation. They then undress and start to have sex. He either stops or can't do it. She asks whether he doesn't like her now that she's older.And then the twist. Stop reading now if you haven't seen the film. She buddies up to one of his co-workers and gets him to take her to a party at Ray's house. She is asked to leave but refuses. Una wanders around the house and ends up in a child's room. She falls asleep on the bed but is awoken by a young girl very similar in age and appearance to her at age 12. She leaves. Ray stops Una and assures her that she was the only one and he has no interest in the step-daughter. She walks away. Fini.The story leaves us hanging at this point. Ray is a liar who previously said his current wife knew all about his past. Later he admits she knows nothing about it. At a minimum, Una needs to tell her that her husband changed his name, abused her and went to prison for it. The fear that you're left with is that she will say nothing because she still has feelings for him.I understand the criticism about the long stretches of dialogue without much action but the movie is based on a play and the movie maker does a pretty good job of taking a lot of the staginess out of it. It appears that the stage play was one primarily of a dialogue between Una and Ray. It would appear that the film-maker used flashbacks including a younger actress playing Una to "open up" the play for film. There is also a useless subplot about the workplace where the film is set being downsized which might not be in the play as well.However, the movie is a good examination of the complicated nature of sex. Una may have very well liked the sex with Ray but it my opinion, because she was 12 and not 24 when she and Ray were together, she was damaged and remains damaged all these years later. Ray had certainly moved on at the time of the meeting but Una is still stuck with her confused feelings.