When it comes to adapting memoirs and coping with addiction to film and tv, a lot of projects can so easily fall into producing common cliches that we’ve seen countless times before. Director Nora Fingscheidt is no stranger to dramas focussed on complex characters revisiting their past – and in her latest feature we see an intriguingly fresh spin and style to the situations faced by those caught up in excessive drug and alcohol consumption.
Saoirse Ronan has built up a remarkable reputation over the years as being one of our finest actors to the point where she is expected to eat up any role with extraordinary success, but here she breaks new ground with her careful transformation into the volatile yet vulnerable Rona, a recovering alcoholic who sets off on a return to her home in the Orkney Islands in a hope to regain the identity which was slowly lost through her habitual turn to alcohol.
The Irish star shines in the tough and complicated task of portraying another real person’s experiences, but with the support of the memoir’s author, Amy Liptrot, on the team of writers, she excels in tackling the rowdy and explosive drunken episodes that gradually push close friends away as well as the sober stages of rehab with a familiar background and world around her, pulling off a catalogue of different hair colours while at it. It would not be a surprise if were it to result in a fifth Academy Award nomination in six months time.
The work from cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer and the sound design team do a terrific job in giving the Orkney Islands its own personality and character with its pure and calming environment, the natural beauty being paired with Rona’s reflective narration of her past experiences. The locals on the Islands add a lot to the story as Rona comes to find much relation and belonging in them.
Meanwhile, life in London completely contrasts with the the North of Scotland as the city’s fluorescent and visceral lights from the partying and extensive drinking of night life demonstrate the vast differences between the different places in the story.
The film’s structure flows back and forth between the troubles of the past and the present. But while it does have moments when it can be a little tricky to pinpoint where some scenes fall in the story, it benefits from some impressive and stylish editing.
With a spearheading performance from Ronan, alongside a brave and bold take on a serious subject, ‘The Outrun’ will stand out as one of the more distinctive hard-hitting dramas this year.
‘The Outrun’ releases in UK cinemas on September 27.
