Nyad review – a solid, female-fronted sports saga

Representation of mature women in movies about endurance sports has traditionally been rather limited in both fiction and documentary feature filmmaking. And so Nyad, from co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (the pair behind the beloved 2018 climbing doc, Free Solo), sets to redress the balance, focusing on the extreme-dream exploits of bullish marathon swimmer Diana Nyad and her numerous attempts to swim the treacherous body of water between the Havana coastline in Cuba to the shores of Key West in Florida, her epic journey only officially complete once her two ankles have ascended from the brine.

What becomes clear rather quickly as this isn’t just a case of mind over matter and positive mental attitude, but it’s complex production that – much like a communist revolution – requires the perfect set of conditions for successful execution. Nyad, as played by Annette Benning, is overflowing with The Right Stuff, but no amount of vim and vigour is going to prevent a Box Jellyfish from administering its poison into your face when you’re 40 hours into your swim. 

So the film is structured as a case of trial and error, with Nyad and her giant-spectacled trainer, Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), proving to be gluttons for punishment when it comes to spending long stretches on the choppy seas finding out how nature is going to scupper another shot at the prize. The film charts three of four failed attempts at the crossing, and having to watch so much marathon swimming does occasionally mirror the metronomic tedium of actually being out there in the water.

Benning and Foster make for fine sparring partners, with the former soon being subsumed by egomania and a sense that gets to boss all the crew around, and the latter being torn between the fact of doing something memorable so late in life, and kowtowing to an arrogant bitch who, if successful, will be the one collecting the spoils. Otherwise the film’s dramatic arc is fairly conventional, yet it builds to a dénouement that would have only the saddest of sacks failing to punch the air.

Also worth mentioning is Rhys Ifans as the commercial sailor who decides to come on board as navigator, despite being the only one of the team who refuses to take any of Nyad’s peacocking bullshit. Through his character we get some decent exposition about gulf streams and weather systems, all things that Nyad seems to care little about but that will eventually help her coast to victory.

There’s a superficial attempt to deal with some of the childhood traumas that apparently drove Nyad towards this Fitzcarraldo-like feat, but we only get a few short flashbacks and no real sense of whether this did help her mentally compartmentalise these persistent fears. It’s a film with some decent feel-good credo (if that type of thing floats your boat), and there’s certainly value in having a film about mature characters that isn’t horrendously winsome and patronising.

Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.

By becoming a member you can support our independent journalism and receive exclusive essays, prints, weekly film recommendations and more.