Any discussion of The Outrun begins and ends with Saoirse Ronan, who is as she always is, an actor who feels wholly real as whoever she’s portraying, whose performance seems effortless even when she’s doing the most difficult work. Most actors have tricks, little gestures or expressions that carry through their films and remind you that however good they are, they’re still the actors you know—Brad Pitt has them, Meryl Streep has them, Tom Hanks certainly has them. Saoirse Ronan doesn’t. Or if she does, they’re so subtle I haven’t ever noticed.
The movie itself has plenty that’s good about it and plenty that’s not, but that all flattens out and becomes far less remarkable either way when it’s put next to Ronan’s performance as Rona, a woman who’s a few months into alcoholism recovery and who’s moved back from London to her father’s farm in Orkney, off the coast of Scotland. Her father struggles mightily with bipolar disorder, which has had a major effect on Rona, and her mother has found religion, creating a wide disconnect. And so, in a very real way, Rona is recovering alone.
The photography is gorgeous, as it has to be when we’re looking at such a wondrous landscape, and Stephan Dillane’s portrayal of Rona’s father is occasionally deeply affecting—there were times it was painful enough it made my stomach hurt. We see the damage of Rona’s alcoholism in flashback, and the movie returns to this well too many times. After a point, we understand the situation, and we feel our time might be better spent elsewhere. There’s also a voiceover from Rona that’s largely unnecessary and distracting, and by the end, it’s clear our narrative threads have frayed.
But we have Saoirse Ronan, which is what matters, and she reveals the complexities of Rona to a degree probably even beyond what the script has given her. It’s a stunning performance, another in a long line of them, and the kind of thing that just makes you shake your head at how good she really is.
The Outrun is in theaters October 4th.
