2024’s The Outrun is this year’s great performance of a recovering alcoholic that inevitably deserves an Oscar nomination. Saoirse Ronan’s The Outrun tells the story of Rona, a 29-year-old alcoholic on her road to recovery after some terrible events traumatizing her for life. The non-chronological film might occasionally be a bit hard to take in, but at the end of the day, it’s a beautiful tale of hope and growth. To understand Rona’s experiences, the best way to understand her mind would be to go about the film as chronologically as possible. It’s the hair color that you’ve got to pay attention to. Rona grew up on a small, isolated island in Orkney, Scotland. A farm girl by birth, Rona’s an intelligent woman who easily grasps information. Her life begins to sparkle after she becomes addicted to alcohol and has outbursts while studying biology in London, possibly ruining her life, but is it for good? Will she recover? Will she be able to heal, and how?
Spoiler Alert
How Does Rona’s Dad Affect Her State Of Mind?
Rona’s life’s been a rollercoaster of ups and downs right from birth because of her father’s bipolar disorder. So while her father truly loves her, he struggles to show her that affection occasionally, and then suspects she doesn’t care for him at all. Even at Rona’s birth, her father suffered an episode, which would mildly foreshadow what would come next. Rona grew up a healthy girl with a great interest in the farm. While not knowing what her father’s been through, she would try her best to impress him and bond with him because, when he wasn’t depressed, he was absolutely wonderful to her. This was the basis of their relationship.
When Rona begins to get addicted to alcohol, she realizes she loves the way it makes her feel; she’s always happy when she’s drunk, and she can say what she likes and do the things she wants to without hesitation. This means hurting the people closest to her, just like her dad hurt her. When Rona first moved to London, she met a boy named Daynin, a wonderful partner, who she felt alive with. However, soon after her drinking began, Daynin started to grow weary of the suffering she put him through after having too many drinks. Daynin stayed with Rona for as long as he could, hoping she’d change, but as one knows, it doesn’t work so easily. After giving her many chances to stop, Daynin leaves her with a simple “I’m sorry” note on the bed. Rona makes quite the spectacle, calling him names on his street, asking him to open the door, and yelling at him for being a terrible person. One night, Rona’s so drunk, she gets thrown out of a bar and picked up by a random car. The man claims he’ll take her to Daynin’s house, and under the influence of alcohol, she doesn’t realize that he can’t do that without knowing where the guy lives. Rona is sexually abused that night, and in the cruelest way, it’s a wake-up call for her.
Rona then turns herself in to a recovery clinic, where she heals with some wonderful people. She makes friends sober. She opens up about missing alcohol and how it made her feel, and eventually she manages 90 days of being sober and gets out. Rona decides to go back home to Orkney after getting out. She spends some time with both her parents, who are divorced now. At first, it’s absolutely wonderful, and she works on the farm with her dad, but then he spirals, and she looks to alcohol for support. Rona stops herself from actually drinking it, but when she gets to her mom’s, she realizes that she’s a spectacle to the whole town, and everyone knows what’s happened to her. Additionally, her mom’s now a devout Christian and thinks praying is going to help her, so all of this together sends her back to the elixir she’s been dreaming about. In her drunken state, Rona tells her mother that her dad left her because she changed and started believing in prayer, in a myth. She hurts her mom in the same way her dad will do to her a little bit later, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Finally, instead of returning to London, Rona decides to go to Papay (another very small island) for a bit and work for the RSPB, a bird protection charity. This is when things start to turn around for Rona for the better.
Is nature truly healing?
They say nature is healing, and being away from the bustle of the city might help you get better, but does this stand true? In The Outrun, Rona talks a lot about the myths of Orkney. She talks about how sometimes one can feel vibrations in Orkney, and there’s a mythological tale to help us understand why. According to the oldest theory, a monster called the “Mester Muckle Stoorworm” was defeated by a young man called Assipattle. He burned the monster with a fire so bright that its teeth fell out and formed the Orkney Islands. Its liver is still burning today, causing this low rumble. Interesting that it’s a burning liver and not heart when we’re looking at a movie about alcoholism. I’m going to get back to the monster in just a bit. Rona might be alone in Papay, but she has the tidal waves of the sea with her. It seems Rona isn’t really afraid of anything, and even when the rain gets too loud and the sea looks like a monster itself, she’s happy. In Papay, Rona joins an AA group. The old man who runs the group tells her that you have to take it one day at a time. Rona always thought that she couldn’t be happy without alcohol, but it seems the island itself helps her realize otherwise.
Rona’s job is to look for corn crakes, an endangered species of bird that are found on the island. Every night she hopes to hear the sound of one of them, but she never does. When Rona’s scheduled to leave the island, the flights are canceled due to some technical difficulties, and she has to stay back a couple of days; it’s supposed to be the holiday season. At first, Rona’s somewhat sad, but she decides to go for a swim in the terribly cold sea. Here she sees selkies; Orkney speaks for seals. But these aren’t just any seals. According to one of Rona’s stories, the people of Orkney believe that when people drown, they turn into seals. During the high tide, they turn into humans and come to land, dancing naked in the moonlight. But legend has it that if they’re seen by humans, they can’t go back and get stuck being dissatisfied on land forever. I guess in a way, Rona heals herself by returning to the sea and taking selkie form. Not literally, of course. Rona’s a woman of nature, and seeing the seals even from a distance and the thrill of being so cold you’re numb to the bones makes her realize that she can in fact be happy without alcohol. She’s finally healed. Rona returns with a zest for life and work; she’s already got ideas for a new PhD thesis.
Why Does Rona Dye Her Hair Orange?
In The Outrun’s ending, Rona dyes her hair bright orange, and I think it’s a symbol of her accepting the monster within her. The color of the monster is orange, and before Rona was healed, her hair was blue, like the ocean. At the end of the film, Rona compares herself to the island itself. She says her body is a continent; every piece of it compares to something in nature. So, maybe Rona is the island itself, and all she needed was to return to the sea to see that. Earlier in the film, Rona talks about how she used to think her father could control the weather. In the end, Rona controls it herself, swinging her arms with the tides and moving the wind in the direction she likes. The film ends with the happiest moment when Rona finally sees a corn crake, making her the happiest she’s ever been. I guess in a way orange also represents the fire or passion within her to keep going, just like the monster’s burning liver.
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