Nyad (2023)

Score: 3 / 5

It's rare that I find a film most compelling due to a single element, and perhaps even more when that element is acting, but Nyad fit that bill last year. Diana Nyad, in case you don't remember, is the legendary long-distance swimmer who tried multiple times to swim the Straits of Florida, from the Keys to Cuba, in the early 2010s. Raw material seemingly made for film, her story is one of stubborn perseverance almost to the point of martyrdom, as the over fifty hours of constant swimming in open ocean could have easily killed her, even while supervised. Some will note the various skeptics who doubt certain aspects of her achievements, but technicalities aside, it is clear that Nyad is one of the most determined and accomplished aqua-athletes in America, and this dramatization reminds us of the human story behind the headlines.

Annette Bening plays the title role with especial attention to the name's mythic Greek roots. Her character repeatedly references her fate to live in the water and succeed where mere mortals cannot. Bening embodies Nyad with determined physicality, shocking and riveting as she takes to the water like a professionally seasoned swimmer. Even out of the water, she has a messy-haired, wild-eyed, almost animalistic ferocity in her directness and lack of social grace. Bening's steely gaze sees through the artifice of everyone around her, cutting them down while inflating herself, despite a lack of stylish habiliment. Much like Bening's shockingly muscular prowess in mastering this role, Jodie Foster nails a more emotional role than she's had in a while as Bonnie Stoll, Diana's longtime friend and trainer, she watches her best friend flirt with death time and again. She's more perceptive and warm than her counterpart, offering us a welcome perspective on what's really happening to and around Diana from a person we immediately trust. She's also the only person to call Diana out on her prickly behavior. Their relationship is the dynamic that pulses through Nyad, and it serves up a raw feast for your heart.

But it's not all your typical sporty biopic about a dedicated athlete overcoming the odds. She does, of course, but there are twists to it. First, the two women are also exes, which adds a melancholic but heartwarming flavor to their interactions, especially as Bonnie has to witness Diana's monomania and try to support and protect at the same time. Second, Diana is hardly a likable person; so single-minded is her obsession that she can scarcely interact with other people without limiting the conversation to her methods, her training, her goal. She's also remarkably conceited, constantly boasting and self-promoting to the point of off-putting most who enter her orbit. One wonders how much her motivation and her narcissism stem from misogyny she's endured and needed to overcome on her own terms. Third, this isn't a team sport and therefore the film doesn't engage much with the whole camaraderie/teamwork/acceptance trope that structures most inspirational sporty stories. Diana feels that she is alone, fighting powers that seek to keep her in her place, combatting forces of nature like King Lear in the ocean (she is in her mid-60s, after all), and even challenging her supporters for trying to control and influence her pure dreams.

The narrative itself, apart from these character elements, is routine at best. All five of Diana's attempts are dramatized to various extent, and each introduces new and increasingly dangerous elements of her crossing. Powerful ocean currents, drifting courses, and threats of sharks and jellyfish send them back to the drawing board each time, learning new ways to light her path, protect her face and body, even to feed and water her without touching. In between, we get glimpses of her spats with reporters, friends, and even her colleagues, including her somewhat surly ship captain (Rhys Ifans), whose understanding of the sea surpasses her own, much to Diana's chagrin. The film features a few effectively intense and memorable scenes -- a jellyfish attack in the middle of the night is particularly harrowing -- but it also wallows in a lot of "same ol', same ol'" shots of, well, open ocean and torturous swimming, only really discernible by virtue of the forced and obvious soundtrack (that is supported by the screenplay, as Diana mentions songs that run through her mind as she keeps time, but it's still overbearing in our experience of the film).

In summation, the two lead performances are more than award-worthy and more than make the film worth watching. I'd have liked, perhaps, a bit more consideration of Nyad's real character, rather than the somewhat mythic caricature presented by this film. There is always a time and place for inspirational, (wo)man-against-nature adventure or sports flicks, and this definitely fits the bill with an unusually keen focus on complex characters. But when the real Diana Nyad, who is still alive and proudly making rounds as a motivational speaker, etc., has come under such fire for exaggerating her own accomplishments, fabricating her numbers and methods, and even being denied a Guinness World Record for the task depicted in this same story, it feels disingenuous and purposely misleading not to include more of the shady side of her persona. Bonnie at one point teases Diana for embellishing one of her repeated tales, but no further reference is made to her untrustworthiness. Not that painting Diana as a liar should be the point -- heck, the writer could have included more about her need to be better than how the male-dominated sport and society view her, or her determination to be an older, queer woman role model to inspire younger generations and how that can impact someone's self-image.