Benedict Andrews' gripping adaptation of "Blackbird" lands a prime release date, after a strong festival run in 2016.
The trailer skillfully obscures the central premise of the film, and we’ll pay you the same courtesy; it’s best experienced cold. Suffice it to say that Rooney Mara’s Una and Ben Mendelsohn’s Pete (or so he says) have a dark past, one that the trailer and film communicate through extensive flashback sequences intercut with one harrowing day at the mill where Pete works. They’re on a collision course with a forbidden secret they’ve both buried for years, one that radically changed both of their lives when discovered. There are heated arguments, dramatic knocking-offs of things from tables in one sweeping motion, a painfully awkward champagne toast, and wall-to-wall good acting.