Director Nora Fingscheidt transforms Amy Liptrot‘s best-selling memoir into a shattering slice-of-life drama in her film adaptation of The Outrun. The story features Saoirse Ronan, who makes a transformative turn as a recovering alcoholic attempting to find her footing in a new lifestyle. Ronan commands the screen with an overwhelming display of vulnerability and grit. Making its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, The Outrun is a tender story about one young woman’s struggle to reach stability and find inner peace in a chaotic world.

Rock Bottom Allows For a Fresh Start

The film opens with a stunning underwater shot of seaweed flowing gracefully among the coral reef. There is a sense of tranquility below the surface, off the shores of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The remote island is a place that 29-year-old Rona (Ronan) knows well, but the sense of peace is a feeling she struggles to accept. For the past ten years, Rona has lived in London, where she fell into an unsustainable and dysfunctional lifestyle of partying and drinking. Despite having a Masters degree in Biology, Rona has been unemployed and directionless. Her life takes a dramatic downward spiral after a night out when she becomes blackout drunk and accepts a ride from a stranger. The next day, she wakes with no recollection of the previous night’s events. She then discovers that she has been assaulted, and her boyfriend–fed up with her unpredictability and recklessness–has finally left.

Watch The Outrun trailer here.

Attempting to get her life back on track, Rona returns home to her family farm on the Orkney Islands and checks into rehab. Rona knows she’s doing the right thing, but she still misses parts of her former alcohol-fueled life back in London. She flashes back to these moments often, both the good (falling in love with her boyfriend) and the bad (hiding bottles of booze around the bathroom for sneaky drinking). As much as she tries to suppress these memories, especially the details of the horrifying event that led her here, the intrusive thoughts continue to leak into Rona’s present life.

It Never Gets Easy, It Just Gets Less Hard

A lot of these triggers also come from her father, who struggles with addiction himself. His toxic behavior encourages Rona to relive the worst of her childhood traumas. But through perseverance and the trust of her newfound and tight-knit sober community, Rona eventually feels confident enough to embark on her journey of recovery. Returning to Orkney is returning to true identity, and though sobriety never gets easy, it eventually gets less hard.

Stunning Visuals Offer Insight Into Rona’s Inner World

At its core, The Outrun is a spiritual awakening in film format. Through stunning cinematography, DP Yunus Roy Imer immerses audiences in Rona’s mystical world. The poetic visuals offer insight into her complex inner narrative. At the height of Rona’s addiction, her story is lensed through handheld camerawork. These moments are shot intentionally out of focus and with a blurriness around the edge of the screen, alluding to Rona’s drunken double vision. Once she reaches her family’s farm, the colors that leap from the screen are jaw-droppingly stunning. The arresting visuals, including lush hills and chilling Arctic waters, ring similar to the beauty of The Banshees of Inisherin.  

Throughout The Outrun, sound also plays a major role in aiding Rona’s recovery journey. The final scene concludes with a mesmerizing operatic score that reveals Rona as finally in control of her life. The score, as well as natural elements like birds and wind, make for an enhanced audio-visual experience.

Takeaway

Based on the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot, The Outrun is a poetic and transfixing film about returning to oneself. Fans of Banshees and Aftersun will recognize a fiery spirit in Saoirse Ronan’s character. Rona’s story shows that sometimes, surrendering to chaos is the necessary first step. What follows is acceptance, which gives way to autonomy, and can finally result in a positive change.