The Outrun | Official Trailer (2024) | Studio Canal UK
Based on the memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is an intense and deeply personal drama about a young woman returning to her homeland of Orkney in a bid to rehabilitate.
In perhaps her most physical performance to date, Saoirse Ronan plays Rona, a woman in her late twenties with an alcohol use disorder. To mirror the disarray that this has brought to her life and relationships, the film has a clear start and end point but is littered with flashbacks and forwards so that the audience can piece together her story little by little. The details are - sometimes literally - hazy, and aid our understanding of how fun times quickly turned disastrous.
Sequences of Rona’s life in London start off gleeful and full of colour, with friends riding bikes, carefree dancing, and meetcutes in clubs - and my word, how beautifully Nora Fingscheidt directed that scene with Paapa Essiedu in particular, but a pattern emerges whereby joy is replaced with recklessness, pain and a person that people around her find increasingly difficult to be around. The duality of this lifestyle eventually takes enough of a toll that Rona leaves city life and all of its vices behind for the rural Orkney Islands, an archipelago off the north coast of Scotland.
When she first moves up to the islands, it feels as if Rona only has a choice between staying put and self-destructing, or opting for self-inflicted exile from modern society in this far flung corner of the UK. And though it’s true that London provided her with personal and professional opportunities, you can immediately feel the affinity she has with the islands and the gifts it has to give - things that we may not immediately place much value on: sparsely populated areas, fresh sea air and close-knit communities. A job with the RSPB surveying birds at risk of extinction has her moving even further away from civilisation and she moves from the mainland to Papay, a smaller island which has a population of between 80-90 people, residing in a tiny pink bungalow with only the coastal wind to keep her company most of the time.
Though the locations change, Rona (along with all the mental conflict she faces) is consistent and now with the clifftops around her, the audience can almost breathe a sigh of relief on her behalf as we can see how much physical and emotional space she has to enable her to change her habits and resist drinking. Not only this, but she can pursue her interest in biology (you will probably never see somebody talk so passionately about seaweed on film again!) and spend more time around her father’s flock of sheep on the eponymous outrun, than with crowds of clubbers in Hackney. To this end, the screenplay includes interspersed voiceovers from Ronan that provide insight into the natural landscapes and folklore of Orkney, and it is clear through this and the sprawling visuals of the almost-untouched countryside how much synergy there is between nature and the human inhabitants of the islands.
With respect to how the subject matter of substance abuse is handled, Fingscheidt doesn’t shy away from depicting traumatic experiences and the aftermath of blackouts, but the perspective is character-first and sympathetic, rather than dwelling on the behaviour and damning her every move. The psychological impact of the experience is very much shown rather than told, and there are a few subtlety used secondary characters that enable Rona to open up about her struggles. Her actions are never excused per se, but instead contextualised by showing us glimpses into her childhood and the reality of growing up with a parent whose bi-polar disorder means that they experience severe episodes of depression and mania. Later scenes show that this evidently doesn’t get any easier to handle as an adult child, especially while trying to manage your own disorder.
Despite the heavy themes, the film overall does feel like it’s following someone who is moving forward and it’s a journey of recovery and readjustment that is extremely compelling to watch. Recognisable patterns are formed with the audience: when Rona wears her headphones, for example, we know exactly what she is listening to because the sound becomes part of the diegesis, which is particularly jarring when she is listening to new rave EDM like Simian Mobile Disco with relaxing waves crashing silently around her. These repeated actions, much like her new career listening out for corncreaks, provide a renewed sense of perspective and purpose.
Rona’s process is conventional in some ways - she attends AA meetings and requests to be checked into rehab - but ultimately it is the relationship that she forms with herself in relative solitude that allows her to reinvent how she deals with life and sobriety. The formation of patterns, repetition, and being able to control external elements becomes one of the most important visual and narrative elements to the film, not to mention one of the singular best scenes on the beach, where the euphoric is swapped for symphonic power. This is her shining moment, when she is ablaze with courage and defiance, wild and enraptured. Ronan’s embodiment of the character (a living person, for reference) deserves all the high praise, but in this scene in particular she proves why she is one of the best actors working today.
People often talk about the benefits of freshwater and sea swimming, but in this film we see a character’s cleanse occur in real time. Being surrounded by untamed coastline where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea brings a host of benefits for Rona, not least the self belief that she does have the inner-strength to control her mind, body and beyond.
Verdict: The Outrun features at least two scenes that will live in my head rent free for a very long time. Nora Fingscheidt continues her successful run of films exploring troubled and complex people in a creative and sensitive way once again. Saoirse Ronan is incredible… yet again. A perfect match.
Overall? ⭐⭐️⭐⭐⭐
Big screen appeal? 🎬🎬🎬🎬
Accolade eligibility? 💡💡💡💡💡
Study-worthy? 📚📚📚📚
Help and advice:
NHS Alcohol Support: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-advice/alcohol-support/
Drink Aware: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice-and-support/alcohol-support-services