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This review contains minor spoilers.
In The Outrun, Saoirse Ronan plays Rona, a former biological scientist living in Scotland (and sometimes England) who lets her alcohol addiction essentially ruin her seemingly successful, normal life. The film is structured in a way that shows three portions of Rona's story - First, her as an addict leading up to her tragic demise - Second, the period of time between her first stint in rehab to the moment when she is released - and Thirdly, her time living back with her Mom in Scotland after she has completed rehab. Most of the issues I have with The Outrun are actually derived from this structure, as it plays out of order and jumps all over the place. There is very little time to settle into the pockets of Rona's story. It is also somewhat hard to follow as the movie does not give us any way to differentiate between these different time periods in her journey - with the excpetion of her hairdo and hair color. From what I could gather, when she has aqua-blue in her hair, it was pre-rehab. When she is a natural color blonde, she was post-rehab (and mostly in Scotland with her folks). Then, in the very end of the film her hair is red - which I assume symbolizes that she has been fully healed from her addiction.
Aside from my qualms with the narrative structure and storytelling, it is also a very bleak and dreary watch that summons many feelings of loneliness and depression. I suppose that is intentional based on the subject matter - which is essentially how one overcomes addictions, or even more so how they cope with not having that thing in their life any more (drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever). It plays out far too slowly. However, with all this said I am still recommending the film based on pretty much one (maybe a couple of off shoots like cinematography) component - and that is the career best performance here of Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women). Ronan is an absolute chill-inducing character full of heartache, sickness and regret. Her journey is one of recovery and self-reflection and her portrayal comes with one of the most courageous and vulnerable performances that ANY young actress has given in the last decade or so. She is absolutely divine. Rona gives the audience moments of anger, sadness, disgust, hope and happiness - all of this in the span of less than 2 hours and through her performance that often is solo. These feelings are rarely elicited when she is sharing scenes with other actors, with a few exceptions, but more so come out when just Ronan is acting with her eyes, or body language.
The Outrun also features way too much narration. Rona speaks her thoughts to the audience, much like she was reading from her diary. These narrated lines are often her reflection on how human life mirrors that of oceanic life, which is vastly mysterious by default. While I appreciate the commentary, I don't feel like it was fully necessary and gives the movie too much of a indie-just-to-be-indie vibe. I know I have been beating this movie up, but this is a perfect example to me of artwork that will appeal to those more closely related to the material. The film is about addiction and recovery and the redemption that one must seek when they find themselves there. Ronan's performance left me fulfilled in a movie that was otherwise too melancholy and slow-moving for me. Unfortunately, I think this is another example of an Earth-shattering performance hidden in a pretty non-exceptional film. Ronan's performance is absolutely Oscar-worthy, and we'll see what happens this Awards season. We could have another Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie) situation on our hands where the performance is lauded, while at the same time no one has even heard of the movie it was in. Either way, I am glad we have this from Saiorse Ronan as to date, it is the best performance of her already staggeringly impressive career.
🍿 SCORE = 58 / 100
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