In the world of sports/inspirational films, on their most basic level, there are two distinct types of those films: documentaries and fictionalized movies. Both types of films require a deft hand as the techniques for making them are quite different. So, when a director makes the leap from one type to the next, it can have wildly varying degrees of success. Now academy award winning directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Free Solo,” “Wild Life”) and Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo,” “Wild Life”) are making that leap here with “Nyad.
Starting in 2010, the film follows Diana Nyad, played by Annette Benning (“American Beauty,” “The Kids Are All Right”), as she attempts a solo swim of the straits of Florida, assisted via boat by her best friend Bonnie Stoll, played by Jodie Foster (“Silence of the Lambs,” “Contact”) as her trainer and John Bartlett, played by Rhys Ifans (“House of the Dragon,” “Notting Hill”), as her navigator through the journey. The pair of friends struggle throughout, with Nyad’s stubbornness butting heads with Stoll’s concern for her friend and their mutual desire to set the record and cement themselves in the history books.
Benning and Foster are fantastic here, with excellent chemistry and the sort of commanding performances that mean the entire film is based solely around them. The script by Julia Fox is certainly nothing revolutionary, the perfect kind of fodder for incredible actors to take and make their own. If nothing else, they’re the entire reason to watch the film itself. Ifans is also great, in a grumbly, jaded sea captain kind of way, but the movie belongs to Benning and Foster. It belongs to them so much in fact, that you’d be hard pressed to remember anything about literally any other character besides them and Bartlett. On the one hand, the film is named after Nyad, so of course she will be the focus, but on the other, any character besides the main three serves to either antagonize Nyad into continuing her quest or support her in that continuation. They aren’t characters, merely physical manifestations of the plot’s pushing or pulling.
Vasarhelvi and Chin’s direction feels flat and bland, reflecting their background as documentarians to a fault. The direction feels authentic but flat, lacking any sense of cinematic breadth or atmosphere. They might be working with Academy Award winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Life of Pi”), but the movie is shot as if it’s a typical documentary, like they’re there with the characters and lacking any sense of urgency and vision. One sequence in the latter half has Nyad hallucinating visions of neon colored jellyfish, not only creating a beautiful visual but effectively communicating her mental state without spelling it out to the viewer. It’s a gorgeous moment and represents the kind of creative choices needed for a fictional film like this, that separates the different types of filmmaking. And it's the only moment like that in the entire film. It’s ironic then that one of the film’s best aspects is a lively and fantastic score from Alexandre Desplat (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Shape of Water”) that helps to breathe life into everything, taking over all the senses even though it only requires one.
There’s also something to be said for suspension of disbelief and separating the actual truth from the fictionalized film. However, given how much of her life has been debunked over the years, including the very swim that this film is based around, and her reputation as someone who repeatedly embellishes and overexaggerates her accomplishments, creating a film based around her positioning her as a person who’s being question just because she’s old and gay and a woman is maybe not the best idea. She’s undoubtedly accomplished a lot and there is plenty of merit in creating a film about her, but this way of doing it feels more like hero worship than an honest portrayal of the truth. Ironic given the directors’ history and previous works.
“Nyad” is a film that proves to be enjoyable and entertaining given its central three performances and the inherent “inspirational” nature of its subject matter, and almost in spite of the blandness of the rest of the filmmaking. If you’re unaware of who Diana is, you’re likely to have a slightly better time, but it's hard not to see an interesting story with great performances put on in the blandest fashion possible. 3.5/5
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