On October 4th, “The Outrun” was released in theaters across the U.S. The film stars Saoirse Ronan and is directed by Nora Fingscheidt. It currently rests at 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3/10 stars on IMDb.
“The Outrun” follows Rona (Saoirse Ronan) as she tries to recover from her drinking addiction. She goes back to her childhood home in Orkney to attempt to recover from the past that has plagued her for so long.
The film is based on a memoir by Amy Liptrot of the same title. She writes about the struggle she had between choosing how drinking made her feel in the short term vs feeling truly herself without drinking in the long run. The memoir won the Wainwright Prize in 2016 and the PEN/Ackerley Prize in 2017.
Ronan gives a powerful performance of someone struggling with alcoholism. She’s able to portray the many different sides of someone with addiction from their anger when drunk to the regret the morning after.
Though some sequences are narrated by Rona herself, many scenes are just her alone with no one to communicate with. This is where Ronan’s acting truly shines. She’s able to portray Rona’s emotions with a simple look or how she walks on the beach.
Ronan not only starred as the lead, but she also produced the film as well. She and her husband, Jack Lowden, both read Liptrot’s memoir and felt inspired to tell this story on the big screen. This is the first film Ronan has produced, giving her the most creative freedom of any project she’s done before.
Fingscheidt’s direction lets the audience in on Rona’s personal moments in a way that feels very intimate. The camera work mixed with the script creates moments that show who Rona truly is beneath her struggle. Fingscheidt also incorporates the history and culture of Orkney to bring out the importance of the island in Rona’s life.
The one flaw of the film is that its editing is slightly jarring. It jumps around at different points in Rona’s life and you can distinguish them by the way her hair is dyed. They don’t give a distinct timeline of when each of these events takes place in her life, so this can cause a bit of confusion for the audience.
“The Outrun” is a compelling story of addiction while also handling its source material with care. This movie expands film horizons with Oscar-nominated actors and international directors to all who watch it.
