The Outrun – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Nora Fingscheidt
Writers – Nora Fingscheidt, Amy Liptrot, Daisy Lewis
Stars – Saoirse Ronan, Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane

It is seventeen years since Saoirse Ronan hit the headlines in Atonement (2007). That was the first of many successes.  Yet here she is a mere 30 years old as the producer and the actor who dominates The Outrun.

Rona (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman who was brought up in the Orkney Islands by a dysfunctional family. She fled to London, where the good life consumed her in a hard-living world of addiction, where alcohol in particular became her God. She returns to the Orkneys in an attempt to deal with her addictions. She sees an advertisement while there from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for a conservation officer on the small island of Papay and duly secures the post. She has a particular fascination with the elusive corncrake.

The film cuts backwards and forwards to Rona’s life in London and the Orkneys. It includes therapy sessions in London where Rona attempts to break her addiction. That world is constantly intertwined with her life in the Orkneys. However, in both worlds, the reality of the addiction is not easy to escape and the temptation to cease to be sober is ever present, even on Papay with its seventy-odd inhabitants. In her London world, Rona makes an impressive drunk. She nails it. Equally, she is a serious conservation officer on Papay, and an understanding daughter to her bipolar father Andrew (Stephen Dillane) who lives in a caravan having left his wife Annie (Saskia Reeves). Annie has found salvation in religion and Rona is less understanding of her mother’s religious fixation. It is not to her taste. Ronan has to encompass a variety of emotions as she navigates these relationships. She does so authentically and credibly. She is impressive at all times.

The cinematography in both London and in the Orkneys, particularly the latter, captures the different rhythms of life. It is enhanced further by a memorable soundtrack which combines the roar of the North Sea with the sounds of electronic music from Rona’s London past.

Rona is a multi-faceted character whose life has straddled the remoteness of the Orkneys and the brouhaha of London. In each, she actively participates. She encompasses a panoply of emotions as she tries to locate her ballast. Saoirse Ronan is in front of the camera for almost the entire film. She never strikes a false note. The film relies heavily on flashbacks and it becomes somewhat frustrating to watch. However, that is a small quibble. It is an engrossing telling of the story of a damaged young woman.  Ronan’s performance has to be seen as she adds yet another superb performance to her long series of triumphs.