The Outrun

source: The Outrun

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The Outrun_1080P

I watched trailers for this film a few times before its release, and I was up for a movie with the actress from Hanna, Brooklyn, and Lady Bird; I recognised it was a film about alcohol addiction, so it is possibly one that could be nominated during Awards Season. Basically, the story is told in a non-linear order. Rona (Saoirse Ronan) is a young Irish woman recently out of rehabilitation following a decade of alcoholism treatment. Wanting to help clear her mind and remain sober, she returns to the family home on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Her English parents, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), who is bipolar, and Annie (Saskia Reeves), who is religious, have been separated for a long time. Staying with them alternately, Rona helps her father on his farm and meets her mother's religious friends. Flashbacks show Rona during her student years in London, where she was a biology graduate. She often went clubbing and had a relationship with her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu). However, Rona's drinking turns to alcoholism, causing problems in her relationship, and unintentional injury. Eventually, Daynin cannot cope with her behaviour and leaves her. One night, Rona is attacked while drunk. Soon afterwards, she enters rehab and completes a 90-day sober program. Back on the Orkneys, Rona struggles to connect with others. Rona decides to return to London, but on the ferry, she has an overwhelming urge to drink and abandons her plan to leave. She finds work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds which involves a systematic search for the rare bird the corn crake, listening for its distinctive call. One day, visiting her father, Rona finds him in a non-responsive state. On the side she finds his abandoned wineglass and dips her finger in the red wine to taste, leading to a brief relapse. Soon afterwards, Rona gets a job with the RSPB on the remote Papa Westray island, home to a tiny community. Living by herself, she connects with some of the other islanders and attends Alcoholics Anonymous. She still struggles to avoid the temptation to drink and tries swimming in the cold water. A fellow alcoholic who runs the grocery store assures her that he has been sober for several years and that it does become easier. During a windy winter on Papa Westray, she develops an interest in seaweed biology and her mother is pleased she is becoming healthier. As she prepares to depart that spring, Rona hears the call of a corn crake for the first time and laughs in delight. Also starring Lauren Lyle as Julie, Naomi Wirthner as Amanda, EastEnders' Nabil Elouahabi as Samir, Tony Hamilton-Croft as Gary, Conrad Williamson as Jack, and Seamus Dillane as James the Barman. Ronan gives a terrific raw performance as the girl trying to control her demons and her tempestuous nature. It is a simple enough story of addiction, although the backwards and forwards storytelling can be slightly confusing at times. However, it is good not to slip into drastic melodrama, the emotional moments are controlled and realistic, and the sights of the island (apparently this is the first major film set in the Orkneys) make for great viewing, a worthwhile drama. Good!

The lead, Ronan is superb in this, just amazing acting, with style and ease, a difficult thing to achieve in many ways. She is by far one of the finest actors of her generation and hopefully of all time as she has something very special indeed. Wonderful filming of the scenery and scenes with a really great supporting cast who achieve much and I wish them the best in the future. The simple storyline lets itself down a bit. There was a missing chunk of Ronan's character with much unsaid about her personal story, all focus on the boozing and recovery, Orkney, skelpies, beaufort scale explainations with something missing with regards the complexity of her situation, the mentally ill dad was placed as the culprit, but nothing is as simple as this, possibly writers trying to make her sympathetic rather than a complex human with a dark edge who got herself lost for whatever secret reasons or malice to other humans, which her actions clearly evidence.

2024 has been a truly special year for hidden gems when it comes to movies. I've dug another one up for you called THE OUTRUN, a drama that follows a woman's tumultuous journey through alcohol addiction and recovery. Rona (Saoirse Ronan) tries to isolate herself from her London city life and goes back home to her parents in the Orkney Islands, an offshoot of an offshoot of Scotland. This movie is the first to ever be shot in Orkney. It has beautiful landscapes with unrelenting winds. I need to mention the masterful editing and camerawork. It has fast cuts when she's at her most chaotic, and long, quiet shots when she's at her most peaceful. The color of her hair also indicates where she is on her journey, which helps the audience since the story is told in a non-linear fashion. It doesn't succumb to melodrama, when it easily could have. I wouldn't know, but it feels very true to what addiction feels like. The journey never gets easier, it just gets less hard. Fantastic movie. Saoirse Ronan is going for an Academy Award this year. She has another buzz-worthy movie this year, BLITZ. Remember, a wave looks so cool the higher it gets, but it inevitably eventually comes crashing down.

A movie certainly worth seeing if only for the very poignant moments so deftly and evocatively delivered by Saoirse Ronan. But the narrative does not seem to be well thought out and the story is not told in sequence AND there's nothing wrong with that . The scenes still need to make sense and the movie goer should have a good idea of what is going on. Some of them(scenes) feel like they were just thrown in and still the movie had a very good hold on me. Much of the dialogue is well written , touching, humorous, sarcastic , cynical ,pretty much the whole range what humans can feel in the face of addiction and the strains put on their relationships. The characters of Ronan and Daynin are well written and acted extremely well but the rest of the movie does not measure up to what these two actors deliver.

The Outrun: Rona is a recovering alcoholic, she has returned home to the Orkney Islands. Her parents, originally from England live there, they are separated so Rona splits her time between them, helping her father on his farm with lambing. Her mother has become religious and Rona is alienated from her and her happy-clappy hymn sing friends. Her father is bi-polar, we see flashbacks to when Rona was a child and he takes to his bed, alternating with manic and violent phases. Rona reflects back on her time in London, the disintegration of her relationship and friendships dur to her crazed drinking and behaviour, how her PHD studies were derailed. How all of this happened and the way shr went into rehab is related in a non-linear fashion which best reflects her chaotic life at the time. Orkney is bleak and beautiful as is Papa Westray where she goes to work for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds observing birds. She dances as the waves crash against the rocks, living one day at a time as she struggles to maintain sobriety. She also dances in the circle of the Stones of Stenness though this sends her back into a dark reverie about her time in London. A film with ups and downs as it tracks Rona's voyage through her months on the Orkney Islands. The film is based on the memoirs of Amy Liptrot (The Outrun) who went through similar experiences and returned to Orkney to rehabilitate. Great performances from Saoirse Ronan as Rona, Saskia Reeves as her mother Annie and Stephen Dillane as her father Andrew. Directed by Nora Fingscheidt from a screenplay she co-wrote with Amy Liptrot. 8/10.

Saw this at the Ghent 2024 filmfestival. Confrontational story about a repeating alcoholic, told via a non-lineair script by showing fragments from different times and places, all mixed in a non-chronological order. Previously I considered this approach doubtful, I'm sure (now I've seen it) that this is the only way to impress the pertinent issues on us, also making clear that the problem is at least as worse for friends and family, who are smoothed again and again with promises, with re-attempts in the best of hopes that it will go better this time, only to be disappointed again and again. Whatever remedy is attempted, even completing a 170-days stay in a rehab on zero alcohol, the temptation stays and keeps lurking in the background. A wise statement was that staying clean remains difficult throughout the years, only knowing that it becomes less difficult each time, but it won't go away ever. All in all, a good way to demonstrate the issues involved. And in case you know someone with addiction problems, you'll probably recognize everything shown here. It is a pity that this movie does not offer new insights, only a better and more compelling way to show there are no easy solutions, and (above all) it shows the inevitable suffering of friends and family, reaching out to help but getting disappointed more often than not. The only fresh insight I got was that a non-lineair script can be used proficiently, but it is the first time I see it really working.

Greetings again from the darkness. The best movies revolving around alcoholism usually make us feel like we are intruding on someone's personal train wreck. Three that come to mind, each resulting in at least one Oscar, are LEAVING LAS VEGAS (1995), DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962), and THE LOST WEEKEND (1945). This one is based on the 2016 memoir by Amy Liptrot, who also adapted the book for the screen with director Nora Fingscheidt (known for her festival favorite SYSTEM CRASHER, 2019). Having already been nominated for four Oscars, there is little debate that Saoirse Ronan is one of the top actors of her generation. And this may be her best performance yet. As Rona, she captures the quiet desperation and loneliness that isn't always so quiet. We see Rona as the unemployed, Masters-degreed, sloppy drunk party girl. We see her as the drunken victim of sexual violence. We see her as the next-day apologetic drunk who destroys a relationship. We see her in rehab and attending AA meetings. We see her relapse. We see her strained parental relations, and we see her in near isolation in hopes of kicking an addiction that she's not even sure she wants to kick. It's heartbreaking when she admits, "I can't be happy sober." We feel for those who have experienced this with loved ones. Living in London, Rona is all about the excitement and energy of dancing and partying and socializing ... and drinking. She says she likes how it makes her feel, ignoring the next day misery and regret. Her boyfriend, Daynin (Paapa Esiedu) is supportive and understanding, right up until the point where he's had too much of her self-destructive ways. Rona finally accepts rehab and after 90 days, she heads home to Orkney - a sparsely populated archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. Rona's parents are divorced. Her mom (Saskia Reeves) has turned to religion, while her bipolar dad (Stephen Dilane) lives in a caravan and works his sheep farm on his good days. The desolate environment lacks the constant temptations of London (though she still finds a few), and Rona hopes time in Orkney will be restorative to her health and spirit. Filmmaker Fingscheidt makes some interesting choices. The film jumps around in time with Rona's flashbacks to moments in her past - some going back to childhood. This jumping around reflects the mental struggles she goes through in her quest for sobriety. There is also a substantial amount of science and nature included. In voiceover, Rona details the specifics of addictive drinking, as well as the mythology of seals and selkies. Saoirse Ronan is superb throughout, yet two scenes stood out for me. The first is when she meets a stranger on the street, displaying her desperation for companionship and socialization. The second comes when she explains to her mother how seaweed is her new passion (her new addiction?) and is her focus for the future. The only thing close to being as photogenic as Saoirse Ronan is the coastal Scottish landscape. It's both breathtaking for us and claustrophobic at times for Rona as she fights the urges. Rona's job with RSPB had me doing a quick Google search for endangered Corncrakes, and though most of the film left me emotionally drained, watching Rona 'conduct the ocean' provided a welcome jolt of joy. Opens in theaters on October 4, 2024.