After living life on the edge in London, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. Hoping to heal, she returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands where she grew up.
Saoirse Ronan puts in yet another brilliant performance in Nora Fingscheidt’s ‘The Outrun’, as a struggling alcoholic trying to come to terms with her addiction by moving back from London to her home in the Orkney Islands. Based on a best selling autobiography by Amy Liptrot (who also collaborated on the screenplay), it’s been adapted by Nora Fingscheidt who directed the excellent German movie ‘System Crasher’ a few years earlier.
Told in a non-linear fashion, we follow the story of Rona (Saoirse Ronan), a 29-year-old woman whose life has came crashing down as a result of her addiction to alcoholism. In the ‘past’ sequences, the destructive nature of Rona’s alcoholism are lain bare as she ruins a loving relationship with her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu – another movie he’s been underused in), and gets herself into a series of dangerous situations that lead her into the AA programme via a 3 month spell in rehab. In the present, taking place after her 90 days rehab have concluded, the focus is on her time in Orkney as she attempts to remove herself from the temptations of London by swapping them for the relative serenity and isolation of home.
If you’ve seen a drama about addiction before then ‘The Outrun’ doesn’t really tread any fresh ground, but it makes up for that in Ronan’s performance and the lovely, tranquil Orkney setting, which is the secondary star of the movie after Ronan. There are some moving moments as Rona tries to reconnect with her parents, who are now separated, and a couple of conversations with fellow recovering addicts are particularly impactful. Ultimately, ‘The Outrun’ is a movie about trying to recover from addiction and find peace with yourself, no matter how hard that might be, and with the rugged Orcadian landscapes and a typically committed Saoirse Ronan display, this is a good movie.
Rating: 4/5
Directed By: Nora Fingscheidt
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane, Paapa Essiedu, Lauren Lyle and Izuka Hoyle
'I have a purpose. If you think that it's some kind of blessing it's not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through.' Marty Supreme (2025) 