The addict is Rona (Saoirse Ronan), whose life in London as a microbiologist and relationship with a kind boyfriend (Paapa Essiedu) is destroyed through the lens of alcohol. We are shown bar fights and their resulting wounds as well as "near sexual assault" as her grip on reality is slowly washed down the drain.

An emotive turn from the Irish actor is matched by Nora Fingscheidt’s fluent direction while adapting Amy Liptrot’s memoir

Saoirse Ronan plays to all her greatest strengths in this stark addiction drama - 4/5 The Oscar nominee plays a woman who returns to her hometown of Orkney to get clean following years of excess in Lo

Could this be Saoirse Ronan's year? With a career already full of fine performances and four Oscar nominations before hitting 30 — the first was at just 13 for her breakout in Atonement — it feels like she already has one of those gold statuettes.

In 2016, Amy Liptrot made a fine publishing debut with a memoir about her alcoholism, The Outrun. Now she has co-written a film based on her book that is a significant achievement in its own right. It’s also the promising debut of Saoirse Ronan and her husband actor Jack Lowden as producers.

For Rona, played by Saoirse Ronan, it's alcohol, at least to begin with. For her mother, it's Christianity, and for her father, who oscillates between episodes of mania and depression, it's sheep farming,