The Outrun

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, The Outrun follows Saoirse Ronan’s Rona as she attempts to start anew after giving up booze for good. It’s compelling subject matter that’s employed to progressively tiresome (and, eventually, interminable) effect by Fingscheidt, as the filmmaker, armed with a screenplay written alongside Amy Liptrot, delivers a padded-out and hopelessly uninvolving endeavor that boasts, at its core, an absolutely disastrous non-linear structure – with the needlessly disjointed atmosphere generally preventing the viewer from working up much interest in or sympathy for the protagonist’s exploits. (This is to say nothing of the confusion that increasingly ensues as it becomes more and more difficult to discern when certain things are occurring.) And while the picture admittedly does possess a stirring performance by Ronan and a small handful of admittedly compelling sequences (eg Rona loses control at a nightclub), The Outrun builds towards an absolutely endless final third that, as it could and should have been trimmed down substantially, diminishes the impact of certain climactic revelations and happenings – which, despite the inclusion of a stirring final scene, ultimately cements the film’s place as a misfire that squanders its star’s often searing efforts.

*1/2 out of ****