Head of Reviews Robert Flynn reviews The Outrun, a film which looks beyond addiction and toward the natural world
Control - recovery dramas always seem to be about control. Nora Fingscheidt’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir The Outrun (2024) establishes its themes of control and addiction instantly. Within the opening scenes, the film flashes back to Rona (Saoirse Ronan) in her mid-twenties. The scene looks as though she’s being examined through a blurry looking-glass being tossed around a bar.
After years at war with her own mind and a constant battle with addiction, Rona makes the decision to stray from this perilous path and seek help. We then see Rona in the present, 117 days into being sober and staying with her reserved mother (Saskia Reeves) and working with her struggling father (Stephen Dillane) in Orkney in the north of Scotland.
Fingscheidt harshly captures the Scottish seaside, with its deep cavernous caves and the endless seaweed of Orkney with a fastidious and yet veridical lens. Her vision of the north of Scotland is not romanticised; the reality of the cold, harsh conditions is felt to a visceral degree. This representation is not meant pejoratively but rather feels as though it is in awe of the natural world, rapt up in the profundity of the ocean.
Rona is persistent about returning to her life in London and to continue her journey of sobriety in the city, but when given the chance to leave, a feeling of anxiety builds to an overwhelming dread, forcing Rona to continue her life in Orkney.
Remaining in Scotland, Rona begins to feel at odds with the landscape and with the way of life on Orkney, while being reminded consistently of the life she once lived back in England. As she searches the vast landscape of Scotland she becomes enamoured with the natural elements. Rona discovers stones that have stood for hundreds of years and cliff sides that have endured the violent crashing of turbulent waters for centuries. Fingscheidt presents these images of the elements the same way in which she represents the human body. Detailed wides and intimate closeups that often feel like shades of the work of Terrence Malick. The film presents a link between these elements and Rona, conveying the lessons in endurance and healing which Orkney has to offer.
Saoirse Ronan’s powerful performance meshes well with Fingscheidt’s approach to storytelling. While the film often switches, sometimes without indication, to the past, Ronan is consistently able to ground the film and guide the audience. She conveys the various layers that are contained within Rona’s road to recovery with distinction in each chapter without relying on extreme spouts of emotion or scenes typical for an Oscar clip.
It’s a largely internal battle that she has been tasked with, and she approaches it with a degree of subtlety and control that only the most select few of talented actors can achieve.
Fingscheidt’s recovery drama proves to be an interesting addition to the subgenre, in part because of Ronan’s performance, but also due to how it extends beyond the usual trappings of stories concerning addiction. Rona turns to nature, or indeed nature comes to her, in her time of need - subsequently granting her (and the audience) solace.
The Outrun is a film that you may not have known you needed until the credits begin to roll over Orkney.