Friday’s intense rehab drama “The Outrun” serves as an awards-worthy showcase for its star Saoirse Ronan.
The Irish actor, with bright blue hair, plays gritty and game Rona who, facing 30, returns to her home in the Orkney Islands with one goal: To get sober.
“Outrun” rates as a personal triumph for Ronan, 30, who carries the film and is in every scene. It was Ronan’s husband, the “Slow Horses” star Jack Lowden, 34, who discovered the source material: Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir which Liptrot adapted for the screen.
“It’s nice to see a film from a different angle and be involved in it a different way,” Lowden said of producing “Outrun.” “I’m not very good at sitting around and not doing much, which can sometimes happen as an actor.
“For this one in particular, I didn’t set out and go, ‘I want to produce this film.’ I just read and fell in love with the book and then gave it to Sersh to read and we both went, ‘This would be an incredible role and an incredible story to tell.’
“Amy’s story is such a relatable, universal story for anybody in recovery. The unique thing about it is the fact that it’s particularly a young woman in recovery.
“Where it is in the world, in the Orkney Islands, makes it also unique, a rural setting. Because alcohol abuse and addiction is something that is particularly prevalent in rural areas.
“It is a story of hope. Ultimately, it’s something that for people who do not have an addiction or whatever, it will help them understand and not be so quick to judge. Seeing someone, a young person like that, literally almost locking themselves away on a remote island to find answers about themselves and help themselves, is a really, really cool story.”
As an actor with “Slow Horses” and its convoluted, high-intensity paranoid plotting, Lowden’s M15 intelligence agent River Cartwright is often seen running fast and furiously. You wonder, is this done in one take? Is there a chance Lowden might fall and trip and end up in the hospital?
“I’m glad you pointed that out,” he said. “It is a concern of mine. Quite often a lot of the running is downstairs or down slopes or downhill, which is not an easy thing to do.
“It’s also,” he mock lamented in his Scottish accent, “not an easy thing to make look cool. I think I’m still learning about that.
“And no, it’s definitely not a one-take thing. I wish it could be. But we’ve just finished Season 5 and there wasn’t as much running in that, which was nice. That was a big change.”
“The Outrun” opens Friday
