Saoirse Ronan is mesmerizing in The Outrun, and your chance to see it is on the evening of Thursday, Dec. 5 at the Paradise Cinemas. It’s an innovative, thrilling, and deeply affecting recovery drama which Talking Films has described as “a masterpiece that has to be seen on the big screen.” Net proceeds from the event will be donated to the Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin.
The Outrun is an intensely moving story of recovery and self-exploration set against the backdrop of the Orkney Islands, an archipelago of about 70 islands off the northern coast of Scotland. It is based closely to the 2016 widely admired memoir of the same title by journalist, Amy Liptrot, who co-wrote the script with director Nora Fingscheidt.
Saoirse Ronan plays Rona, the fictionalized movie version of Amy Liptrot. When the film begins, we meet Rona as a 29-year-old biology graduate student, who is struggling to maintain her sobriety. She had spent the previous ten years working and going to school in London, but her increasingly complicated relationship with alcohol has led to loss of friends, her romantic partner, job, and culminated with a stint in rehab. She’s returned to the Orkney Islands to rebuild her life, the place where she grew up and her parents still live.
You may feel like this is a movie you’ve seen before, but you haven’t. This is in no doubt due to the lyrical and captivating way Fingscheidt has constructed the film, which doesn’t move chronologically, but follows the course of Rona’s contemplations, ideas, and memories. As we slip back and forth between locations and the different stages of Rona’s life, her story slowly unfolds and a path towards recovery emerges.
When she moves to an even remoter part of the Islands, Papay Westray (or as the locals call it Papay), she takes on a volunteer position for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, researching and looking for an endangered species of corncrakes. Surviving a gruleling but invigorating winter in a tiny bird warden’s cottage, Rona begins to write, to heal, to reconcile her past with her present, and to rediscover the capacity for joy (Liptrot spent two years writing her memoir in the same cabin used during filming). Flashbacks continue to crash in like waves, but more and more, Rona is able to stay grounded in the present.
Like the memoir, Fingscheidt seamlessly weaves Celtic folklore, poetry, philosophy, and scientific discourse into the story. From the stormy sea spray to the barren fields, jagged cliffs and windswept beaches, nature is a character unto itself in this movie, and it’s breathtaking.
While Fingscheidt doesn’t shy away from the misery of addiction, she avoids treading on cliched territory. She does this by helping us understand its allure: how being out of control can be mistaken for freedom, how living on the edge can feel like exhilaration, and by grounding the story in specificity. “At its heart, this is a story about the human capacity for transformation, self-discovery, and redemption. How Fingscheidt renders this unglamourous process so beautifully, so specifically, and with such curiosity as to how a person learns to reconcile their past with their future, is a marvel to behold.” Guardian
Statistics from the Canadian Centre for Addictions indicate that the holiday season has a massive impact on people struggling with addiction and their families and points to a significant risk of relapse (Canadian Centre for Addictions). That’s why we’re partnering with the Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin for this screening, an organization within our community that helps provide support to youth aged 12-24 who are dealing with substance use challenges.
The Outrun is screening at Paradise Cinemas (78 Third Ave South). Rated PG. General admission tickets are $10.00 and are on sale now at the Open Book. Remaining tickets will be sold in the cinema lobby prior to the screening. Doors open at 6:30 p.m, and the show starts at 7:00 p.m. We encourage you to get your tickets in advance, and to arrive early to get a good seat.
Net proceeds will go toward the Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin which offers youth aged 12 to 24 access to mental health and substance use support, physical and sexual healthcare, peer support and social services.
The takeaway: The Outrun is a transformative, innovative drama, anchored by a career best performance from Saoirse Ronan.
