Nyad
Diana Nyad has a lot of athletic achievements and a big ego, which is why she’s the perfect subject for directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. The couple, who won an Oscar for their breathtaking 2018 film “Free Solo,” have always been interested in pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible physically and mentally. Nyad, the legendary long distance swimmer and former ABC “Wide World of Sports” correspondent, fits that bill. And “Nyad,” which marks Chin and Vasarhelyi’s first narrative feature, tells her story as a 64 year old attempting to swim from Cuba to Florida a grueling 110 mile journey.
It’s your standard sports uplift tale, your tried and true triumph over adversity. This was her fifth successful crossing; she had failed four times before with coaches and kayakers and a medic on hand this time around. We see all the setbacks, all the ways it went frustratingly wrong before it went right. One year there were box jellyfish.
But what makes “Nyad” different from predictable territory are Annette Bening and Jodie Foster both individually and when they’re acting opposite each other. There’s no other way to say it. Bening is swaggering as Diana, she revels in the self-aggrandizement of this person who just can’t read social cues because she thinks so highly of herself (you’d have to). But as an actress, Bening seems aggressively un-vain here: makeup-free with wet messy hair in swimsuits or faded tees this is not glamour.
Foster basically steals the movie from under her as Diana’s longtime friend/coach/former partner Bonnie Stoll. The two veterans have such natural chemistry together, they really make you feel like these women have known each other for decades. But Foster also brings a clear eyed warmth that serves as a nice counterbalance to Bening’s intensity. Her on screen spark is just so pure and alive, she’s not even acting it’s thrilling to see Foster sink her teeth into this kind of meaty, funny part again. Bonnie is the one person who will call Diana out, until Rhys Ifans shows up later as the no nonsense captain of the boat that follows alongside her during try after troubled try (he’s good at wry world weariness).
This brings us to the one thing that’s conspicuously absent from the movie a true depiction of Nyad’s alleged reputation for lying. Multiple recent investigative articles have shown that she hasn’t always been honest about her storied career; she’s made up achievements that are easy to disprove. “Nyad” nods toward this tendency once, when Bonnie lovingly needles Diana about exaggerating the details of an oft repeated anecdote. That’s all. There’s a thornier, messier, much more interesting story here so it’s frustrating that the filmmakers settle for easy inspiration. Maybe they couldn’t bear to give a 74 year old who is still alive and in the public eye a fully warts and all portrait. Photographs of the real life figures with their counterparts during the closing credits suggest that she signed off on it. But we might have gotten a better film if she hadn’t.
Still, “Nyad” provides plenty of beautiful scenery and genuinely nail biting moments even though we know Diana wins in the end, not least because each time through you learn something new about how slight tweaks can lead to success farther down the line.
The needle drops are painfully on the nose Simon & Garfunkel! Neil Young! She explains that she keeps a playlist running in her head to give her strokes rhythm, so these could conceivably be some of the actual songs that kept her going. Still, they’re a little obvious in this cinematic context.
The ocean is relentless, so is Diana as she says things like: “I don’t want an asterisk next to my life’s greatest achievement.” “Nyad” may not be the greatest movie about that achievement ever made but it’ll do.
For More Movies Visit Putlocker.