“The Outrun” with Saoirse Ronan reminds us that the fight against alcoholism also affects young people

CINEMA – A young woman staggers laughing as she leaves a London pub, but the scene is not a party. On screen, Saoirse Ronan hits rock bottom, blue hair and wild eyes, before the start of a long personal journey. The Outrunreleased Wednesday, October 2 in theaters, delivers a poignant story about resilience and deals with alcoholism with sincerity. With this film, director Nora Fingscheidt offers the Irish actress her finest role. Saoirse Ronan is also the co-producer, alongside her husband Jack Lowden.

Adapted from Amy Liptrot’s eponymous memoir, published in 2017, The Outrun follows the fight against alcohol of Rona, a young Scottish woman in her late thirties. After a vicious spiral of parties and excesses in London, and a romantic breakup caused by her addiction, Rona returns to live with her mother in the Orkneys, almost desert islands in the north of Scotland. Far from everything, she tries to face her problems and revisits her past.

This return to her roots forces her to face her addiction, but also her father’s bipolar disorder and her relationship with her mother, who took refuge in religion. Alone, facing the force of nature, Rona once again begins a fight for her sobriety.

Saoirse Ronan puts a different face on alcoholism

At 30 years old, Saoirse Ronan delivers here perhaps the most poignant performance of her career, although it has already been confirmed. With this role, the Irishwoman is tipped for a fifth nomination as Best Actress at the 2025 Oscars. Her character Rona goes through all the hair colors and all the emotions. From festive inebriation to the aggressiveness of alcoholism, through deep boredom and madness, Saoirse Ronan shows the full range of her acting skills.

The actress herself has seen loved ones affected by this addiction. An experience that motivated her to bee “as authentic as possible”as she confided on the set of Late Late Show by Patrick Kielty. “When you’re on the other side, there’s so much pain, confusion, anger and resentment because you don’t understand why the person is doing this to themselves and to you.”she explained. With this film, Saoirse Ronan said she was finally ready to immerse herself in the psychology of people who suffer from alcoholism.

The sincerity with which she interprets this character shows another face of this social problem, which affected 209 million people over the age of 15 in 2019 according to the WHO. In films and series, alcohol or drug addiction among young people is often portrayed through the prism of partying, like a noisy and chaotic descent into hell. Apart from the few flashback scenes, The Outrun is a contemplative film, where silence and calm reign.

A postcard from Orkney

In addition to providing a moving look at the difficulty of staying sober, The Outrun is also a majestic postcard of Orkney. The cliffs, the force of the wind and the surf of the waves become characters in their own right and echo Rona’s internal dialogue.

Only 22,000 people live on this archipelago made up of 70 islands, of which only 20 are inhabited. Faithful to Amy Liptrot’s book, local mythology has its place in Nora Fingscheidt’s film. Rona’s mental wanderings teach us as much about resilience in the face of alcoholism as they do about the ancient legends surrounding North Sea seals. In addition to Mainland, the main island, The Outrun takes us to the end of the world to Papay (or Papa Westray), where only 90 inhabitants live.

Isolated, subject to the good will of nature, Rona will find within herself the strength to move forward. While she is a few months into her sobriety, the island grocer counts his sobriety in years. “It gets easier, but never easy. It just becomes less difficult”he slips to her during a conversation, with his inimitable Orcadian accent. Like the film, it reminds us that alcoholism also affects young people and that remission is no simpler. The path is just longer.

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