Review: 'The Outrun' is a raw, beautiful look at alcoholism, with a fearless performance by Saoirse Ronan
Director Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun” is a strong drama about alcoholism — joining a crowded movie roster that includes “The Lost Weekend,” “The Days of Wine and Roses,” “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Flight” and countless others.
What brings the movie to that top tier are the raw honesty of the script, by Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot — on whose memoir it’s based — and the full-tilt fearlessness that actor Saoirse Ronan applies to the central role.
Ronan’s character, Rona, has been in London for several years, in a life of rave parties and constant drinking — and, as the movie jumps forward and backward in her timeline, we see the toll that all this drinking has had on her health, her physical safety, her romantic life, and her overall happiness. (Fingscheidt uses a clever visual device to help viewers keep the threads of Rona’s timeline straight: The changes in her hair color, from aquamarine to faded blue-on-blonde.)
Months into sobriety, Rona moves home to the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland. That’s where her mother (Saskia Reeves) lives in their house on the family farm, while her father (Stephen Dillane) lives separately in a caravan on the property. As the story unfolds, we learn about Mom’s late-in-life conversion to evangelical Christianity and Dad’s recurring bouts of manic depression — and their effect on Rona growing up.
Flashing back and forward, we get glimpses of more of Rona’s life. A boyfriend, Dayton (Paapa Essiedu), and how Rona’s drinking intruded on that relationship. A career in biological research that was derailed. Moments of blackout drinking and their violent aftermath. A rehab circle in London, and an AA meeting on the island — where one man, sober for 12 years, gives her the advice that staying away from alcohol “never gets easy. It just gets less hard.”
Much of the power in “The Outrun” comes from scenes where Ronan is alone, on the windy shores of the Orkneys, helping a conservation group’s survey of a rare bird, or hanging out in a drafty cottage — always alone with her thoughts, considering her past mistakes and figuring out what to do with her life next.
Ronan’s performance is tender, passionate and intense, and will be deserving of every bit of awards-season conversations coming in the next few months. Most of those conversations will mention that Ronan turned 30 in April, and how weird it is that a 30-year-old actor would be considered overdue for an Oscar. (She’s been nominated four times before — “Atonement,” “Brooklyn,” “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” — without winning yet.) Ronan is overdue, and “The Outrun” could be the venue to correct that omission.
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‘The Outrun’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, October 4, in theaters. Rated R for language and brief sexuality. Running time: 118 minutes.