Sydney Film Festival – The Outrun

The Outrun - Sydney Film Festival

The Outrun – Sydney Film Festival Rating

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According to Orkney Island folklore, when people drown in the sea they get turned into seals. These creatures, called Selkies, secretly come back to land at night to dance in human form, before heading back into the sea. But, if someone sees them while on land, they get stuck in human form, to live their lives unhappily on land and longing to return to the sea.

I recently saw The Outrun, a new Scottish film by German director Nora Fingscheidt, at the Sydney Film Festival. It tells the story of Rona, a young woman who returns to the windswept Orkney islands of Scotland to recover from a troubled past while studying in London. The film is fragmented and non-linear, jumping back and forth in time between her childhood, wild nights out in London, the rise and fall of a relationship, and her journey of recovery on the Islands of Orkney.

The cinematography is solid and often beautiful, showcasing not only the wild, natural beauty of the Orkneys, but also letting us dive into the colour and vibrancy of London and the sensory confusion of intoxication. Rona is an alcoholic, and her journey deep into the abyss of her addiction and then trying to climb back out is the core of the film.

The cast are incredibly engaging. Saoirse Ronan, who plays Rona, also produced the film and leads an outstanding cast including Stephen Dillane, Saskia Reeves, and Paapa Essiedu. They all deliver solid, believable performances that feel true to their characters.

What I noticed most about the film was how well sound was being used to create atmosphere. The constant howling wind on the islands gave a real sense of an unforgiving and cold environment. I felt like I was there. It was often subtle but almost always there, and when they faded out the wind for a poignant moment of reflection it worked beautifully.

In London, the sounds of traffic and people and music was an effective contrast to the desolate wind. Sound was also important to Rona. She listens to dance music as she works on her father’s farm or walks along the shore, a connection to her distant life in London. For months she listens out for the elusive call of a rare migratory bird.

We are told this bird, the Corncrake, has a low chance of surviving its journey to Africa and back. That was an allegory I felt laid on with a heavy hand, especially when Rona is told similar statistics to the success of recovering alcoholics before embarking on her journey back to the Orkneys.

Another problem was the cliché use of hair colour to denote different periods on Rona’s life. Hair-colour is a well-used visual cue for the audience to keep track of constant shifts in narrative time, but they could have come up with something more creative, such as hairstyle or even tattoos. It seemed easy, and lazy. And worse, it was used to manage an editing choice that was itself problematic.

The narrative has several layers of extra complexity and detail that could have been dropped from the film without doing any damage to the core emotional story. This seems to be a hangover from its source; the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot, who also helped write the screenplay. It felt as if the production team was so enamoured by elements from the novel, they were determined to put them in the film even though they’re different mediums. Random voiceovers came in that don’t help build the world or drive the narrative forward in a satisfying way. It was obvious these were simply bits from the book they wanted in the film but didn’t have time to explore properly. The Outrun is littered with these half-formed ideas or half-developed themes.

Paradoxically, while it’s littered with detail, the narrative runs out of steam. By mid-way, the film settles into a constant repetition of events and doesn’t really go anywhere, only adding small details or extra information that could have been told earlier and more efficiently, or not at all.

The second act is often dangerous territory for film-makers and The Outrun suffers from a lack of discipline. The constant jumping in time and place may represent Rona’s state of mind, and reflect the source material, but it doesn’t allow the audience to settle down and get drawn into the story. Instead, I was getting bored.

And then came the ending, which I felt was somewhat derivative, predictable, and a little unsatisfying. The Outrun is a well shot, superbly acted film that suffers from an undisciplined script and a chaotic structure that takes the wind out of its sails.

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Sydney Film Festival: Super/Man The Christopher Reeve Story

Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Rating

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The directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui present the documentary Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story to the world and by doing so, they bring him to a whole new generation of people who may not know who he is, seeing that Superman was released to box office success in 1978. Perhaps some people know him for being the man in the blue and red lycra suit, but Christopher Reeve was so much more than these four movies, and we are introduced to the man behind the Superman suit.

Through exclusive archival video footage, and interviews with his three children Will Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens and Matthew Reeve, we are given a glimpse into Christopher’s life.
The film explores his early years, as a student at The Julliard School, where he met one of his closet friends Robin Williams. He loved acting, treading the boards on stage in theatres. There is an interview with his then partner Gae Exton, the mother of his two children.

We see him as the family man, now in a relationship with singer and actress Dana, playing piano with Matthew sitting on his lap, bantering with his two eldest children Will and Alexandra and leading an extremely active and outdoor life. Christopher Reeve also narrates part of his biography, and various home movie footage scenes show his interactions with many sports and hobbies. He tells us that he loved horse riding, sailing, gliding amongst the clouds and tennis.

“I’ve always loved flying. It’s my passion in life.” he says. Christopher flew solo twice across The Atlantic. This was a man who lived life to the fullest.

Until an accident in 1995 which changed his life in a split second. Whilst at an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia, Christopher was thrown forward from his horse and suffered injuries which would leave him paralysed with spinal cord injury. He was 42 years old at the time of his accident and would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair and on ventilation needing 24-hour nursing care until his passing on 10th October 2004.

There are scenes which separate the archival footage which show a sculpted likeness to Christopher floating in space. When the accident happens, it was a clever artistic touch to see kryptonite crystals forming on his body.

We witness Christopher’s journey and his loving support from his wife Dana. It becomes a very human story from this point in the film. The family and directors have carefully pieced together the footage to show how Christopher Reeve was a man who, in his opinion after the accident, had lost everything. The documentary shows how scared he was. He went from being a participant to an observer and the audience could feel his loss, especially in one scene where he came home after the hospital.

However, Christopher Reeve was no ordinary man. He was intelligent and he was courageous. He began to want to live, and he credits this to his wife a couple of times. Christopher’s narration of how he became determined to walk again, with painful physical therapy sessions, and his journey to being an advocate for people with spinal cord injury is truly inspiring.

The documentary features interviews with his friends, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Greg Daniels, Susan Sarandon and by way of archival footage, the late Robin Williams and Brooke Ellison, a friend Christopher made who also had a spinal cord injury. Brooke speaks of how Christopher spoke out, to educate people on the hardships people with disabilities face, and to lobby the government to pledge money to be used toward research. Just ten months after his accident, in an industry which was not inclusive of people with disability, he attended The Oscars sitting in his wheelchair on stage and was greeted with a standing ovation.

Together with Dana Reeve, they started the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, dedicated to researching a cure for spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for those affected and for their families. The three children are actively involved in this foundation.

It is clear from this documentary that both Christopher and Dana Reeve were people who believed they could make a difference and help others, despite their challenges. This is a beautiful and bittersweet dedication to them both, and to love and courage. We are left with the wise words of Christopher Reeve, that the essence of life “is your relationship”.

I saw Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story on Saturday 8 June 2024 at The Hayden Orpheum as it was showing as part of The Sydney Film Festival.

Film running time: 104 minutes

SESSIONS: Monday 10 June 6PM
Ritz Randwick, Sydney

Sunday 16 June 2PM
Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney

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