Saoirse Ronan is Raw and Real with Addiction in The Outrun

 

The urge to drink for an addict can come out of nowhere.  For those susceptible to addiction alcoholserves as an intoxicant or relaxant to cope with anything that may cause stress or uncomfortableness.  Feelings and energy that the past follows them never expires and the weight of it all can come crashing down like waves on a shore.

Based on the best-selling memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is a brutally honest drama about addiction and recovery, strength and survival, mental health and the ability of the sea, the land and of people to restore life and renew hope.

After a decade away in London, 29-year-old Rona (Saoirse Ronan) returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sober and lonely, she attempts to suppress her memory of events which set her on this journey of recovery.

The film is told in three layers that are freely interwoven: Rona´s “here and now,  the London-layer which shows vibrantly colourful and dream-like memories of her best times, when she fell in love with Daynin and experienced total freedom, the Nerd-layer, serving as the most intimate insight into Rona´s head and her perception of the world. We are allowed to  hear and see her thoughts and observations, scientific research mixed with extreme childhood memories.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt,  Rona narrates as the audience becomes privy to her drunken blackouts, violent rages, personality changes and growing up with a bi-polar Dad.  Rona would eat red apples were things were great and turn to alcohol when things become challenging.

Saoirse Ronan is a commanding presence onscreen taking her characters and the audiences to unchartered territory.  Her inhabitation of Rona is no different. Her wild, wonderful vulnerability allows you to have empathy and want to smack her into reality simultaneously.  By the time she is found orchestrating the waves of the ocean in the same manner she wishes to orchestrate her life and sobriety, you realize that Rona had to experience this exact journey to find herself on the other side and on the way to a happier more balanced life she won’t have to outrun.

The Outrun is a beautifully orchestrated tale of how inner strength can prevail under the most dire of circumstances while allowing one to rediscover the joy of life and all it has to offer