It may not have attracted all the awards attention it deserved last year, but The Outrun has easily one of Saoirse Ronan's best performances – and it has just landed on Netflix today in America [Tuesday, March 18].
In a career that's already lasted over 20 years, Ronan has accumulated no less than four Oscar nominations. She's never really looked back since her Best Supporting Actress nod in 2008 for Atonement, a film she made at the tender age of just 13. She was a Best Actress nominee for the luscious Brooklyn (2015), for playing the defiant title role in Lady Bird (2017) and, most recently, for her performance as Jo in Little Women (2019), which included her much-memed heartbreaker of a speech about loneliness.
With a clutch of other fine performances behind her — Mary, Queen Of Scots (2018) and Ammonite (2020) were just two – it’s hard to believe she’s never got her hands on one of those gold statuettes.
Reactions to last summer’s early screenings of The Outrun pointed towards a change. She was immediately plunged into the awards race, an early contender who was the one to beat at the time but, as the months flew past, what had been recognized as one of her finest performances was overtaken by other potential contenders.
Some of them made the much-coveted final cut but, while she didn't, there’s no doubt that it's her depiction of an alcoholic in desperate search of a new life that lingers well after the credits have rolled. Speculation about a Best Supporting Actress nod for Blitz came and went as well. It wasn’t to be her year — but it will be. It's a question of when not if.
Amy Liptrot's best-selling memoir was one of the literary success stories of 2016, a reflection on re-building her life after alcohol had taken its savage toll. She also joined forces with the movie's director, Nora Fingscheidt (System Crasher) to adapt it for the screen, retaining the searing honesty that characterized her book.
It was the perfect match for Ronan’s characteristically transparent style of acting, allowing her to throw herself into a character whose addiction makes her destructive and cruel to both herself and those around her. The struggle is real.
As in the original book, The Outrun follows Rona (Ronan) as she tries to find her way along the bumpy road to sobriety. Originally from Orkney but living in London, she's tried therapy groups and spells in rehab, but nothing seems to loosen the grip of alcohol so, when her relationship with boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu) crumbles before her eyes, she decides to return home to the windswept island off the Scottish coast.
Her parents still live there, which brings added pressures, so she retreats to a remote cottage and, surrounded by the harshly beautiful landscape and relentless wind and rain, she starts to find signs of hope in what she knows will never be an easy or straightforward future.
Fingscheidt's love of small details adds an extra dimension to the story, especially when it comes to the characters. The owner of the grocery store near Rona's cottage quickly realizes she’s a fellow alcoholic. He's been sober for 12 years, 4 months, 29 days and counting and, while it seems like he lives in a safe environment, it's still a huge achievement. It’s only when we see the inside of his shop that we understand what those years, months and days represent. As he stands behind the counter, the shelves behind him are laden with alcohol, silently and constantly tempting him.
We never see him sell any of it but, as part of his job, there must have been moments when he had to turn and confront the personal demon that was always looking over his shoulder.
The unforgiving landscape, the biting wind and the steely grey ocean are ever-present, so much so that the photography makes you shiver. And the island's folklore and myths are an eerie constant, especially when seals’ heads bob above the water as if people-watching with bemused fascination.
With its harrowing honesty, striking landscapes and a flawless lead performance from Ronan, The Outrun is one of the many fine films that didn’t receive awards recognition this season or, indeed, in previous years. And that makes it even more worth watching — and more than once. Spread the word. This is no also-ran.
The Outrun is on Netflix now in the US and UK.
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