Reviews For The Easily Distracted: The Outrun

Describe This Movie In One “Here Comes A Regular” Quote:

THE REPLACEMENTS: Well a person can work up a mean, mean thirst
After a hard day of nothin’ much at all

Brief Plot Synopsis: Recovering alcoholic returns to her remote home to reconcile her past and present.

Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 stoats out of 5.

Tagline: “Based on the best-selling memoir by Amy Liptrot.”

Better Tagline: “Children of the Corn Crake.”

Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Rona (Saoirse Ronan) isn’t faring well in the big city. The Orkney Islands native has spent the last several years in London descending into a dangerous mix of alcohol and violence. After a stint in rehab, she realizes her best chance at keeping sober is returning to those same islands, where recovery may be complicated by her separated parents, devout Annie (Saskia Reeves) and bipolar Andrew (Stephen Dillane).
“Critical” Analysis: “If you go mad in Orkney, they just fly you out.”

These words, spoken by Rona (which was probably an awkward name around 2020), refer to the point in her childhood when her father was taken to the mainland by helicopter, but could just as easily have referred to her fleeing the islands for London. The main difference being, they treated Dad. Rona, on the other hand, has to bottom out (and suffer a brutal assault) before finding her way back.

The Outrun separates itself from a seemingly infinite supply of similar stories thanks to the stark beauty of the Orkneys and Ronan’s performance, which will have you cringing for her almost as much as you’re wishing for everything to work out.

Director Nora Fingscheidt directs from a script co-written with original memoir author Amy Liptrot. She and DP Yunus Roy Imer grasp the bleakness of Rona’s island surroundings and offset it well with the isolation she’d self-imposed on herself back in London. There’s also some nice incongruity in Rona listening to techno music on her headphones while feeding sheep and performing other pastoral chores.

Rona’s life, pre-Orkney return, is a trainwreck: blackouts, fights, repeated promises to “never do it again.” Most of this is inflicted upon her well-meaning boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), who eventually has no choice but to turn his back on her.

Liptrot’s memoir was lauded for combining autobiography with nature writing, and the script retains this style, pairing Rona’s journey with asides about legends of the Orkneys (e.g. selkies), the habits of certain wildlife, and the migratory patterns of various native fowl. This approach works to a point, but too often echoes superior previous efforts (My Life As A Dog, etc.).

There’s understandable friction between Rona and her parents when she returns. She butts heads with Annie (Slow Horses’s Reeves) over her faith, mocking it at one particularly low point for failing to save her marriage. She also chafes at the way her mother’s friends hover over her, almost like — well — a wounded (lady?) bird.

And then there’s Dad. Dillane presents Andrew’s illness with few histrionics while offering Rona a look at one of her possible futures: one in which she didn’t get help and, while still surviving, not living in a way that anyone would want.

Rona eventually adjusts to the relatively glacial pace of life on the Orkneys, finding work with a bird research group seeking the elusive corn crake, and finding a way to bridge her emotional chasms while making peace with loved ones and herself.

Much of The Outrun is boilerplate recovery flick, and the ending — which invokes Rona’s comments about feeling like she can control the weather — is a bit pat. It’s really the unique setting and another powerhouse performance by Ronan elevate it.

The Outrun is in theaters today.