Not yet 30 and with four Oscar nominations to her name, Saoirse Ronan could still be fifth for this terrific turn as Rona, a deranged alcoholic trying to return home to windswept Orkney.
We meet Rona in an empty bar in London a few sheets of wind. All steadily helping themselves to unfinished drinks, they are gently managed to the door by the bartender. It is a portal through which she is finally dragged by a not-so-patient bouncer, tipping her and her possessions onto the pavement. When a car pulls up and a stranger offers a lift, you know in your bones that it won’t do any good.
The damage caused by Rona’s self-destructive spiral is painfully etched on the face of her loving partner, Danin. I May Destroy YouNo papa acidu. Instantly trustworthy As a young couple with high hopes, it’s heartbreaking to see an increasingly mean Ronna push Danin away after he hits a rock bottom with broken glass and blood on their kitchen floor.
Not that Rona’s retreat home has been without its trials. Her farmer father (Stephen Dillane) has struggled with depression related to her bipolar diagnosis since she was a young girl. In a film full of departures, these pressures drive his mother (Saskia Reeves) away from him and into the arms of a particular brand of hedonistic religion favored by the Scottish islands. Burdened by their burden, Rona ventures out again, finding solace in one of the sparsely inhabited areas of the islands. Here she can finally lose herself to the beat she once drunk in the club, but now blasts on headphones while surveying the flotsam and jetsam on a blustery beach.
Illuminated in the glow of stormy sea spray, Orkney is majestic – as is Saoirse Ronan
The Outrun Adapted from her own candid memoir by Scottish journalist Amy Liptrot, with German director Nora Fingscheid as co-writer. Fingscheidt handles her real-life trauma with great care, but without shielding us from the harsh realities of recovery.
it is Formally bold, too, the steps towards sobriety break with melodious interludes in which Ronan – affecting a proper Scottish accent – delivers songs on subjects ranging from island legends to the fate of the dreaded corncrack bird to shapeshifting selkies. The latter has a talismanic presence here, with a gently bobbing seal. Illuminated in the glow of stormy sea spray, Orkney is majestic. As is the mighty Ronan.
The Outrun played at the Berlin Film Festival
