The Outrun (2024, dir. Nora Fingscheidt)
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 118 mins
UK Distributor: Studiocanal
UK Release Date: 27 September 2024
WHO’S IN THE OUTRUN?
Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu, Nabil Elouahabi, Izuka Hoyle, Lauren Lyle, Saskia Reeves, Stephen Dillane, Eilidh Fisher, Naomi Wirthner, Danyal Ismail, Posy Sterling, Patch Bell, Nabil Elouahabi, Jack Rooke, Seamus Dillane, Conrad Williamson, Tony Hamilton, Ammar Younis, Scott Miller
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Nora Fingscheidt (director, writer), Amy Liptrot (writer), Sarah Brocklehurst, Jack Lowden, Dominic Norris and Saoirse Ronan (producers), John Gürtler and Jan Miserre (composers), Yunus Roy Imer (cinematographer), Stephan Bechinger (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A recovering alcoholic (Ronan) reconnects with her cultural roots…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE OUTRUN?
Saoirse Ronan is often considered one of the finest talents of her generation, and for good reason. Ever since she first came onto the scene at the age of thirteen in director Joe Wright’s Atonement (for which she received her first Oscar nomination), the Irish actor has become more and more versatile with her talents, doing everything from fantasy to action to teen comedies to historical dramas to Stephanie Meyer YA romances, and not once has she delivered a performance that’s sub-par or below.
It’s gotten to a point where some now feel that Ronan, at age 30, is now well overdue her Oscar, a compliment often reserved for non-winning actors with at least a decade’s worth of further experience, and many feel that her magnetic lead turn in director Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun might finally be the one to give her the best shot at her first statuette. However, there’s only one thing preventing this from becoming a reality: the fact that the film itself is a bit of a mess. Not a terrible mess, but disjointed enough to put off potential awards voters from recognising the wider film surrounding an admittedly great lead turn by Saoirse Ronan.
Based on the memoir by Amy Liptrot, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Fingscheidt, Ronan is Rona, a young woman originally from the Orkney Islands (just north of Scotland, for those unfamiliar with UK geography) who, whilst living in London with her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), has developed a pretty severe drinking problem. In an attempt to overcome her alcoholism, she has returned home to live with her religious mother Annie (Saskia Reeves) and bipolar father Andrew (Stephen Dillane), working on the latter’s farm and occasionally volunteering with the local RSPB, which sees her drive around the area at ungodly hours to listen out for the caw of a rare bird.
Will she beat her addiction, or will it threaten to consume her? A bit of both, as it turns out, but The Outrun doesn’t always make that clear within its non-linear narrative that frequently jumps back and forth between Rona’s wilder days as a drunken party girl and scenes of her getting back in touch with her cultural roots. Sometimes they land, as both Lipton’s writing and of course Ronan’s excellent lead performance drudge up all the right emotions during some particularly hard-hitting and often upsetting moments as this character is shown during numerous lows, as she delivers alcohol-infused ramblings toward those trying to help her, and at one point stumbles into a dangerous scenario that leaves her with a blackened eye and an even more prominent state of regret.
However, the fractured structure ends up causing the story being told to feel undisciplined in its execution. Fingscheidt’s direction nails the dreary and occasionally bleak tone in Lipton’s script that is personified by Yunus Roy Imer’s moody cinematography, which captures some striking imagery of the eternally overcast Orkney landscapes, but it lacks the willpower to stay focused on one developing plot point at a time, rendering much of the drama on offer unfocused.
As it swings back and forth through all these moments in time, it becomes more and more difficult to visualise a complete picture of this character and their journey from self-destruction to an allegorical rebirth. You’re never quite sure of certain aspects surrounding her initial decision to descend into drink, and just as more is revealed about some of the trauma she experienced during her childhood, particularly concerning the alarming behaviour of her mentally ill father, it makes the leap in time all over again before you’ve even had a chance to properly absorb it all.
As I’ve said many times before, non-linear storytelling can work so long as there’s something in the actual narrative to keep the overall investment alive. In the case of The Outrun, there is definitely a captivating story at its heart, and an especially honest one given that it’s co-written by the very person who went through much of this, but the way that it’s structured makes the narrative feel much emptier than it perhaps is. You desperately want to get behind this character’s journey as she attempts to fix her broken life, but the film is so at odds with its own style of storytelling that it prevents there from being much emotional connection to the very subject it is setting out to dramatize.
It’s hard to say whether the film would be better if it were linear, because a movie like this – about a character who is herself going back and forth on all the mistakes she’s made and what she can do to help herself – probably works best when it’s out of order, so as to match the state of its protagonist. However, since there isn’t a particularly sturdy structure to hold it all together, it all threatens to come crashing down at any given moment.
The sole reason that it doesn’t is because, once again, Saoirse Ronan is fantastic in this film. She effortlessly hooks you onto Rona’s deeply personal journey, from her rambunctious days as a young alcoholic to a tempered free-spirit slowly finding her footing within the windy atmosphere of the Orkneys. She breaks your heart, puts it back together with her pure warmth and even some unexpectedly playful moments, and then breaks it all over again as she sheds some honest-to-God tears.
In a career where she’s delivered nothing but certified grade-A performances, Ronan’s lead turn in The Outrun ranks high among her very best work. It’s just such a shame that the film itself isn’t able to match her passion or commitment.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Outrun benefits greatly from a fantastic and possibly awards-worthy lead turn by Saoirse Ronan, because otherwise it falters quite significantly thanks to an undisciplined non-linear structure that prevents much of the emotional investment in an otherwise engaging story.
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