By Jocelyn Noveck, National Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --At some point during “The Outrun,” it occurred to me that watching Saoirse Ronan act is a bit like looking into a magnifying glass: Everything somehow feels a bit clearer, sharper, more precise.
This singular actor gives one of her finest performances in a two-hour study of addiction that is poignant, sometimes beautiful but always painful to watch โ and would likely be too draining if not for the luminous presence at its core. Would it even work โ at all โ if Ronan, who also makes her producing debut here, weren’t onscreen virtually every second?
Luckily, we don’t need to imagine that. Ronan, who plays a 29-year-old biology student named Rona (the name comes from a tiny island off Scotland) serves as both star and narrator, speaking the words โ sometimes poetic โ of the addiction memoir by Amy Liptrot. The script, adapted by Liptrot and director Nora Fingscheidt, makes frequent use of fantasy and whimsy, even veering into animation. Some may find these deviations a distraction from the plot, but they are frequently mesmerizing.
Besides, plot is a loosely defined thing here. We go back and forth in time so frequently that sometimes only the changing color of Rona’s hair indicates where we are on the timeline. It takes a while to get used to this, but the uncertainty starts to make sense. We are, in a way, inside Rona’s mind, experiencing the fits and starts of her journey. And recovery is hardly a linear process.
There’s a fine supporting cast, but the true second star is nature itself. The film is based mainly in the Orkney Islands off Scotland, a windswept landscape that can be both punishing and restorative. It can also be stunning, especially the sea. And the sea is where we start, learning that Orkney lore holds that when someone drowns, they turn into a seal, but at night they return ashore in human form and dance until dawn.
We see a seal underwater, and then we see Ronan herself dancing โ bathed in red light on a dance floor โ and then falling down, blind drunk.
After this flashback, we learn Rona has come back home to her childhood home for an extended visit, after a decade in London, where addiction took hold and ruined her relationships โ especially with thoughtful boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), who achieved success as she disintegrated.
From nightlife in Hackney, London, to a sheep farm in Scotland, where the days of sobriety are ticked off for us โ 30, 90, 117. The challenges here are different. Rona’s father, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), is loving but suffers bipolar episodes. Due to his debilitating illness he lives away from his wife, Annie (Saskia Reeves), who has turned to religion to cope โ and that’s the only solution she can offer Rona.
Deeply lonely and always on the precipice of relapse, Rona sees a crack of light in the darkness when she takes on volunteer work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, given the job of surveying the Orkney Islands for the disappearing corncrake. This bird needs help to survive, and soon it seems to represent Rona herself.
But Rona’s troubles follow her no matter how deep into the countryside she goes. As she tells fellow addicts in a devastating flashback from her alcohol recovery group, what she misses most is how good alcohol made her feel. At another point, she tells someone she’ll never be happy if she’s sober โ and you believe her. In yet another harrowing scene, a relapse has her howling to her mother: “All that praying didn’t help me, Mum!”
Eventually, Rona, aiming to get even farther from civilization than mainland Orkney, repairs to the tiny island of Papay โ an island, as she notes, that is off an island, off another island, off another island, and off another. Here, during a brutal winter in a tiny bird warden’s house, interacting only with the town’s sparse population, Rona starts to heal. (Liptrot spent two winters here, writing her memoir.)
Perhaps Ronan’s most impressive accomplishment is how she delineates the stages of Rona’s journey with such clarity โ even down to the physical movement of being drunk, first a bit, then a lot (she worked with the talented choreographer Wayne McGregor) and how one changes physically during recovery.
And then there’s her face. We see a translucent quality in it as Rona begins to embrace nature โ her own, and that around her โ and look to a new future. A future that may even include laughter.
“The Outrun,” a Sony Pictures Classics release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for language and brief sexuality.” Running time: 118 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Saoirse Ronan Portrays An Alcoholic, Births A Lamb and Embraces A Producer’s Role In “The Outrun”
The thing about birthing a lamb on camera is you only get one take.
Saoirse Ronan had been getting up at dawn to observe local farmers in Orkney in action, soaking in as much as she could. But soon it was her turn. Not only would she have a life in her hands: She had to look like she'd been doing it her whole life. She was terrified.
It wouldn't be the last time Ronan, 30, would have to step out of her comfort zone to make the " The Outrun " (in theaters Friday), a harrowing and transcendent portrait of addiction and recovery which she produced alongside her husband, actor Jack Lowden. She'd yell and scream and say the meanest things she could think of to her fellow actors. She'd go from euphoric to inconsolable on a dime in a chaotic, drunken haze. And she'd plough the despairing depths of a very sick person about to relapse.
But after 20 years of acting, these were challenge she was ready for. There's a reason her performance, defining and distinctive on a resume full of memorable characters, from Briony Tallis to Lady Bird, has garnered comparisons to Gena Rowlands in "A Woman Under the Influence."
It was Lowden who put Amy Liptrot's bestselling memoir in her hands during the pandemic, thinking it might be an interesting role for her.
"We tend to be drawn towards the same kind of material," Ronan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "I trust his taste and opinion. I kind of hold it higher than anyone else's."
They were both at a point where they felt like they had more to give to the movies than just performing. They wanted more responsibility, more agency to help shape the material that they loved so much. And so, Ronan and Lowden set off on a journey to make "The Outrun" together. Producing, she said,... Read More