The start of any year is always the time when I try to catch up on all of the movies that have been doing well in the journey to the Oscars, which often forces me to watch films I can't get enthusiastic about. Nyad was one of those movies. I just didn't see what I might find to enjoy in the true story of swimmer Diana Nyad, an open-water swimmer who attempted multiple times to swim between Havana, Cuba and Florida, with her final attempt also being hampered by the fact that she was then aged 64.
As has happened before, and will undoubtedly happen again, I was wrong. Nyad had me riveted from start to finish, despite me knowing about the outcome, thanks mainly to the performances from three main cast members (Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans).
There's nothing here that is a surprise, whether you're considering what is shown onscreen or who is behind the camera, but it's all put together very effectively, with just the right reverence for the central characters accompanied by an acknowledgement of the self-mythologising that has been a part of Diane Nyad's character as long as she has been a figure in the public eye.
I would write a plot summary here, but it would just be repeating the end of the first paragraph. That's all you need to know. Bening plays Nyad, Foster is her coach, Bonnie Stoll, and Ifans comes onscreen just in time to be the integral third, a navigator/boat owner named John Bartlett. As well as the standard problem of swimming such a distance, Nyad has to deal with the weather, which can seriously affect the path taken through the sea, potential shark attacks, and dangerous jellyfish. There will also be a moment or two when such conditions start prompting hallucinations, something Stoll is well aware of and ready to deal with, as and when they occur.
Even if you know how this story ends, and I think everyone will have some idea of that (I mean . . . if I knew what happened, considering my limited knowledge of sports and athleticism, it must have been given some fairly substantial world-wide coverage), this is a great story of not only individual determination, strength, and courage, but the fact that it takes a whole team of like-minded people working together to help anyone even come close to achieving their life-long dream.
Both Bening and Foster have been deservedly nominated for awards already, and have already won a few accolades for their performances, and the film is carried along by both of them. With footage of the real Nyad and Stoll interspersed throughout the feature, there are easy points of comparison, and both leads feel like a perfect embodiment of their real-life counterparts, as well as a perfect embodiment of the main themes of the film. Ifans gives one of his most low-key turns, even dealing with an accent that he handles well, and his outsider view of the Nyad/Stoll dynamic is a great way to explore the good and the bad of the whole situation.
Co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi bring their skillset from a background in a number of celebrated documentaries, writer Julia Cox adapts Nyad's own book with a liberal attitude towards pesky things like truth and facts, "minor details" that would just get in the way of the cinematic journey, and the end result is as easy to dissect and criticise as it is to sit back and enjoy, or you could say . . . just go with the flow.
I was really impressed by this. And whether I completely believe Nyad, or whether she got away with printing her own legend, I was equally impressed by her journey (not just through the water, but moving from being so self-involved to realising how much help and support she received from others). I hope others end up feeling the same way, even if this is just a step on the way to discovering other athletic swimmers, and some documentaries looking at similar challenges (e.g. The Deepest Breath).
8/10
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