The Outrun (#604)


I saw a fine film a couple of days after my 95th birthday.  (No applause please.)  I guess it's what might be called an actor's dream role because I think the actress starring, Saoirise Ronan, appeared in virtually every scene snd performed brilliantly as she always seems to do.  In THE OUTRUN, Ronan plays the role of Rona (I thought her screen name was Oona which is the name of my favorite (and only) great granddaughter), as what I can only gather was a marine biologist who is a raging alcoholic. The film is faithful in depicting the happenings and language in AA meetings, several of which Rona attends as she seeks a path to sobriety.  It seems that her father is an alcoholic as well,  snd we see her at times in her unhappy childhood. It is confusing in terms of flashbacks whether she is just emerging from rehab or has been in and out of rehab several times.  Whatever the case, she is now sober and working on a research project in the remote Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland. The film is slow snd plodding at times in its just under two hours of length, but Ronan is so good you don't mind.  Obtuse snd rambling, it is still one of the better films I've seen this year.  Critics generally agreed with me as 82% gave it a thumbs up, largely it seems, on the basis of Ronan's performance.  65% of audiences concurred. 

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