Film Review – The Outrun

October 3rd, 2024 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

The Outrun (2024) further confirms Saoirse Ronan’s talent as a performer. From Brooklyn (2015), Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019), Ammonite (2020), and now this, Ronan has gradually built up a resume that can stand toe to toe with just about any actor of her generation. She has a chameleon-like ability to adapt to any situation – from comedy to drama and everything in between – and still inhabit a character with full authenticity. Here, she plays a person struggling under the weight of alcoholism. Stories of alcoholics trying to get sober has been done countless times in movies, to the point that it has become its own subgenre. And while this does follow a familiar pattern, it is anchored by Ronan’s excellent performance.                

Director Nora Fingscheidt (who also cowrites with Amy Liptrot adapting the latter’s book), constructs The Outrun as a combination of grounded realism with a heightened lyrical atmosphere. There are sequences that look and sound like they were taken right off the street in real time, but a few minutes later we will dive into images that are clearly metaphorical. In the middle of it all is Rona (Ronan), a young woman whose promising career in biology gets derailed by her heavy drinking. Now out of rehab, Rona has returned to her old stomping grounds of the Orkney Islands, just off the northeast coast of Scotland. There, she attempts to pick up the pieces of her life, rekindle the broken relationships with her friends and family, and to come to some sort of peace with her addiction.

From the outset, Fingscheidt’s direction uses the surrounding landscape as a reflection of Rona’s mindset. The cinematography (Yunus Roy Imer) captures the jagged rock faces, blustery winds, crashing waves, and damp weather as an active character. Alcoholism – or any addiction for that matter – can make a person feel isolated. Even when they attend support groups (in Rona’s case, AA), the battle against substance abuse can often make them feel like a one-person army. That idea is translated through the isolation that Rona feels when she comes back to her homeland. There are multiple shots of her standing alone on the coastline, staring off into space as though she were on the island all by herself. When the weather gets too harsh, forcing everyone indoors, there is a sense of being trapped inside one’s home. It’s a double-sided coin: Rona returns to the Orkney Islands to isolate herself from the temptations of the outside world, but she will go through long stretches stuck with her own thoughts.

The Outrun does follow a well-traveled path of characters fighting against the bottle. In a bid to have its own identity, the film includes several artistic flourishes. The most notable is that it is told in a non-linear fashion. We follow three phases of Rona’s life: 1) When she was fully into her alcoholism, acting unhinged and putting a wedge between her and her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), 2) Her return home just after rehab, reuniting with her now religious mother (Saskia Reeves) and bi-polar father (Stephen Dillane). And 3) her inevitable decision to either stay on the Orkney Islands or return to London where her alcoholism was first born. As a narrative shorthand, each section is highlighted by Rona’s constantly changing hair color – from aqua, to blonde, to red. While the changing hair helps us stay oriented to Rona’s journey, it makes me wonder how different this would be if it was told in sequential order. Is the non-linear storytelling beneficial within this context?

Another artistic choice is the inclusion of narration. Rona’s voiceover doesn’t so much describe what we are seeing on screen, but rather adds information, texture, and background. Rona speaks on alcoholism, the Orkney Islands, and life in general. She covers a range of topics from the wildlife, weather patterns, and folklore of the area. She goes into detail over the good and bad days of a person trying to kick their addiction. Fingscheidt’s direction accompanies these moments with scenes of magical realism. When Rona describes her feelings of drowning and being overwhelmed, the visuals will switch to a shot of Saoirse Ronan swimming underwater. During the section where Rona shares some ancient folklore or fairytale, we are guided through an animated rendition of those stories. These instances are creative, but they are drastic departures from the down to Earth reality of Rona’s story. The two sides don’t blend that well. One minute will have Rona going through a very serious dramatic scene, and then a few minutes later she will be talking about the various lifeforms in the Orkney Islands’ ecosystem. It’s a strange juxtaposition that never quite gelled cohesively.   

But the star of the show, without question, is Saoirse Ronan. When the camera is not capturing the open spaces of the island, it is fixed firmly on her face – almost always in closeup. There is no vanity in the performance. She exhibits the positive and negative aspects of Rona, making her feel like a fully fleshed out character. She can make big grand gestures, such as when Rona lashes out in one of her drunken episodes. Or she can internalize, taking all the past trauma and guilt and carrying it on her shoulders like a psychological weight. The look on her face tells us how she feels about her boyfriend, her mother, her father, and how all those connections were affected because of her drinking.          

If not for Saoirse Ronan, The Outrun would have dissolved into another story of a person battling their inner demons – something we have seen over and over again. Yes, the time jumps and voiceover narration add a twist to familiar material, but it all operates as window dressing. The heart of the film lies in the human factor, how thoughts and feelings are shared through mature, empathetic, and soulful acting. That’s what Ronan brings to the table, and that is what ultimately makes the film a success.

Ammonite, Amy Liptrot, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, Little Women, Nora Fingscheidt, Paapa Essiedu, Saoirse Ronan, Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane, The Outrun, Yunus Roy Imer