With ‘The Outrun,’ Saoirse Ronan reminds us why she’s one of the greatest working actresses

To say Saoirse Ronan is a great actress is like saying water is wet.

In the 30-year-old Irish actress’ nearly 20-year career, it’s hard to find fault with a single performance even in imperfect films. In The Outrun, she racks up another stellar credit as recovering alcoholic Rona. The film, based on the 2016 memoir by Amy Liptrot, marks Ronan’s debut producerial effort — and it’s a highly personal project for her as well. That’s evident in the pain and ferocity she brings to Rona, who we meet in the midst of the bender that finally convinces her to go to rehab.

The film chronicles her struggle to maintain her sobriety as she returns home to her parents in Scotland’s Orkney Islands. One would think that a strong community is key to staying sober, but Rona finds her refuge in desolate isolation, journeying even further out into the Orkneys to research birds and take in the elements. There, Rona communes with the waves, the seaweed, and the rugged landscape. She finds healing and connection in the island’s frigid ocean waters.

Yunus Roy Imer’s cinematography is another highlight of the film, with its red-light-soaked flashes of Rona’s intoxicated memories juxtaposed with stunning shots of the brutally beautiful Scottish landscape. It showcases the stark, strange appeal of the vistas, using canted angles and unusual perspectives to underscore how the environment’s rough edges and wildness are a match for the turmoil in Rona’s soul.

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Ronan transmits Rona’s anguish with naked honesty, tapping into the despair and abject fear that she will never be able to be happy sober. Her desperate attempt to resist her desire to drink, sniffing and then dipping a finger into a stagnant glass of wine, conveys how tightly she is wound and the enormous self-control she must exude at every moment. And Ronan pivots from Rona’s quieter moments of desperation to her feral drunken binges with an acrobat’s skill, never playing one false note.

Director Nora Fingscheidt, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Liptrot, expertly captures the blips of Rona’s alcohol-soaked memories, evoking the ways that hazy snippets of a night out can return to you in unexpected ways.

Without Ronan’s towering talent, The Outrun could easily be a trite addiction drama. But Ronan, cast against the backdrop of the sublime, evocative Orkney Island landscapes, elevates the film to a moving tale of overcoming one’s demons and learning to savor life as it comes. Grade: B