Title – The Outrun (2024)

Director – Nora Fingscheidt (The Unforgiveable) 

Cast – Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu, Stephen Dillane

Plot – The true story of Scottish born Rona (Ronan) who returns home from London in hopes of overcoming her debilitating alcohol addiction that has derailed her once promising life.   

“I can’t be happy sober”

Review by Eddie on 23/04/2025

A picturesque true life drama centred around the tale of Amy Liptrot’s (here renamed Rona) battle against alcoholism against the back drop of a grungy London and a more scenic Scotland, The Outrun has its heart in the right place and a brilliant Saoirse Ronan performance as its beating core but despite good intentions and some unique approaches, director Nora Fingscheidt fails to differentiate Outrun from a crowded marketplace of feature length films dealing with addiction and substance abuse.

Always a loaded topic to explore and one that remains sadly relevant and topical each passing year, Outrun is a warts and all exploration of the dark battle Ronan’s Rona has with the drink, with her blue eyed female a once bright mind whose increasing reliance on alcohol to take here away from her own mind and more broadly life in general has decimated her life, causing her too seek solace on the isolated Scottish islands of Orkney and escape the hustle and bustle of London that has fuelled her spiral into the abyss.

Told in a non-linear fashion as we cut between Rona loose in London, dealing with Paapa Essiedu’s Daynin who is her long-suffering boyfriend of sorts, working on her families remote farm and then most tellingly her experience living in isolation on the Orkney Islands, it’s at times hard to properly invest in Rona’s journey as we cut in between her various stages of her addiction journey and her random facts about various marine animals and culture.

Its a somewhat confusing approach to the material by Fingscheidt and it stops us as an audience ever truly coming to grips with Rona’s world and her very personal battles that while raw and intimate in some ways aren’t ever properly dealt with here, making Outrun a cold viewing experience overall over its two hour runtime, becoming a film unable to match the commitment and verve of its leading lady.

Never letting us down, Ronan is as typically strong as you’d expect, duly recognised with a collection of key nominations in such awards programs as The BAFTA’s and the British Independent Film Awards but she’s unable to fully bare the weight of the film around her as Outrun struggles to maintain momentum and give us that emotional heft that is present in so many similar films such as Leaving Las Vegas, Flight, The Way Back or heavyweights like Requiem for a Dream or Shame.

It’s always disappointing when a performer feels like they are so far above the film they’re in and that’s absolutely the case here, an unfortunate outcome as there’s clearly merit to what Outrun is trying to say and shine a light on but at days end we’ve seen this all before and seen it done better, with Ronan the only reason to check into this forgettable true life drama.

Final Say –

The Outrun will hit home for some viewers with more personal experiences in its key subject matter and it’s always a pleasure to watch a talent such as Ronan ply her trade but overall Nora Fingscheidt’s feature fails to stand out from the pack.

2 1/2 sea creatures out of 5