The Outrun Parent Guide

Rona (Saoirse Ronan) has hit rock bottom. Drunk and combative, she’s been thrown out of a bar at closing time, only to be assaulted by a man who offers her a ride home. Her black eye and bruises are the latest price she has paid for her addiction to alcohol, along with a broken relationship, a lost job, and a circumscribed future. In desperation, she heads home to Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands to reconnect with her parents and find strength in the untamed land, sea, and sky around her.

In a nutshell, this is a film in which the protagonist confronts the demons of her past, takes responsibility for her mistakes, and learns that she can find her bliss in nature more safely than in alcohol. That sounds trite, but The Outrun isn’t a simple box-ticking story. The language is much better than most films – so meticulously constructed, in fact, that it was obvious early on that this script is a literary adaptation. Rona repeatedly segues into asides about Orkney myths, the biochemistry of alcohol, and the habits of local wildlife. It sounds weird, but it adds depth to the film. I was less enamored by the constant bouncing back and forth through Rona’s timeline – in fact, sometimes I only knew “when” the story was by checking the extent to which Rona’s blue hair dye had grown out. If you’re looking for a film you can simply drift through, The Outrun isn’t for you; it requires some concentration.

The movie also requires audiences to sit through some negative content. There’s little on-screen violence, and the sex scenes are filmed in dim light. Profanity is comparatively light (at under a dozen cuss words) so the real issue in the film is substance use. Rona smokes almost constantly, largely in order to counter her drinking habit. The movie opens with a scene of Rona becoming intoxicated, which is something we see repeatedly, with a variety of tragic or dangerous consequences. A fight with her boyfriend over her alcohol stash leads to bloody cuts on their hands and when Rona’s attacked by a strange man, she’s seen with injuries.

The outrun for which the tale is named is marginal land on Rona’s parents’ farm. Rough pasture, it stands between cultivated land and the low cliffs that go down towards the sea. It’s not difficult to understand the analogy: Rona can choose wildness and destruction on the cliffs of addiction, or she can cling to safety and sobriety. In the hands of a weak director or lead actress, this could feel mawkish, but thankfully Saoirse Ronan has the translucence and grit to portray a character who has both a genuine battle and the power to fight it. I suspect anyone who has battled addiction or struggled with mental illness or family dysfunction will find much to appreciate in this film and Ronan’s brilliant performance. I don’t think it has mass appeal, but The Outrun knows its message and delivers it with clarity and honesty.