'NYAD' Review: A Predictable Yet Well Acted Biopic on Friendship and Overcoming Odds [TIFF 2023]
This biopic on American swimmer Diana nyad’s swim from Cuba to florida is an inspiring tale of friendship and perseverance with excellent performances from its leading ladies.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have a made an incredibly successful career of crafting documentaries that focus on individuals overcoming enormous odds to do the most incredible achievements that most humans can only dream of. Meru focused on Chin, a professional climber, and two other individuals climbing up Meru Peak and the 4,000 ft. wall known as the “Shark’s Fin”. Free Solo showcased Alex Honnold becoming the first person to climb El Captain without ropes or protective equipment and The Rescue told the amazing true story of the 2018 Tham Luang Cave Rescue where professional divers rescued 13 members of a junior association football team. So it comes as no surprise that Chin and Vasarheyli have chosen another true story of overcoming the odds for their first scripted feature in Nyad. Much like their acclaimed documentaries, this film sets its sight on a figure obsessed with achieving the impossible. That figure being Diana Nyad, a marathon swimmer and journalist who in her early 60s is determined to finish what she tried to do in her prime: take an 110 mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. What we are given is a crowdpleasing movie that is as much focused on Nyad’s achievement as it is on her friendship with her coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll and brough to incredible life by the performances of Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
As the film begins, we are shown real life footage of Nyad(Bening) and her accomplishments that range from her breaking the world record of circling the waters of Manhattan Island in 1975 to her last “competitive” swim of 102 miles from the Bahamas to Florida in 1979. It also highlights her first failed attempt at the Cuba to Key West swim in 1978 that was ended due to strong winds. It then cuts forward 30 years later and Nyad has just celebrated her 60th birthday yet her ambition and egotism has not diminished since her prime. Keeping her grounded is Bonnie Stoll(Foster), her friend and personal coach. Believing that she still has one more major accomplishment ahead of her despite her age, Nyad convinces Stoll to help train her to attempt the Cuba to Florida swim once again. Although Stoll thinks its impossible for Nyad to try something she failed at half her present age, she is nevertheless brought on board by her friend’s determination and agrees to train her.
Over the months and years ahead, Nyad continues to train hard to be able to do the 60 consecutive hour swim with no shark cage and overcoming changing weather patterns, sharks, jellyfish and no sleep. She and Stoll bring on board professional navigator John Bartlett(Rhys Ifans) to give her the proper directions to successfully complete her swim. As Nyad’s dreams turn into an obsession with each failed attempt, she finds herself alienating Stoll and Bartlett thanks to her arrogance and refusal to consider the sacrifices they’re making to help her. She must eventually overcome her ego and confront her own personal demons from the past to patch her broken relationships and accomplish the dream of a lifetime.
The sports biopic is an old fashioned Hollywood standard and this does not exactly reinvent the wheel. However, what makes it truly stand out is the way Chin and Vasarheyli present it less as a biopic and more as a study of friendship and being a woman over 60 overcoming all the odds and turn the impossible into a reality. The friendship between Nyad and Stoll really gives the film a beating heart and the filmmakers do a fantastic job at showing how the compliment one another even when they are at odds with one another. The cinematography from Oscar winner Claudio Miranda allows from some really beautiful underwater visuals especially when Nyad is doing her swim. One scene involves her hallucinating that she sees the Taj Mahal as a way to keep pushing forward with her swim despite not having any sleep or food for over a day completing her swim. Alexandre Desplat’s strong dramatic score is complimented with classic rock songs from Simon and Garfunkel, Janis Joplin and Roy Orbison that reflect Nyad’s perseverance and inner thoughts.
There are some narrative problems with the film, however. Although the mix of real life footage of Nyad’s past is integrated very well, there are constant flashbacks to her childhood that pop up frequently and what should be dramatic scenes that further her development end up feeling over the top and distracting. These flashbacks include an abusive father and a coach that sexually assaulted Nyad when she was a child swimmer. These scenes are shot and presented in a way that feels removed from the rest of the film that it can take some audience members out of it due to how soap opera-y it feels.
What ultimately makes the movie work is the brilliant performances of its two lead actresses who like their characters prove that age is nothing but a number. In the title role, Bening gives her most physically demanding performance to date that is filled with the typical dramatic prowess that she always gives. She is able to disappear into Nyad capturing both her aggressive side with that of a determined woman trying to both overcome her past failures with the boulders of turning 60. Bening is always fierce and afraid to show the egotistic and even rude side of Nyad. While she may come off as unlikeable and even hard to root for, she gives Nyad real sincerity that you never feel turned off from her and it’s Bening’s strengths as an actress that make this a performance to remember. Equaling her is Foster as Stoll who is truly the beating heart of the film playing a woman who is selfless in helping her friend in her quest that she is willing to put up with some truly awful behavior from Nyad. The chemistry she and Bening have is believable and real and Foster is able to be the kind hearted friend but also not be afraid to stand up when she feels she is being pushed. Rhys Ifans also gets some strong moments as Bartlett but Bening and Foster’s chemistry make this film standout.
NYAD follows the typical beats that you expect from a biopic and some questionable narrative choices keep it from becoming a terrific film. Yet two of our finest actresses giving their strongest performances in years makes this worth a look and will serve as an inspiration to all of us who have a dream and will do whatever it takes to accomplish it.