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Nyad is Weightless in its Shallow Waters


An interesting early observation I made watching Nyad is that unlike most biopics now that, when using archive footage as a visual aid, would insert in their actor in place of the real person, this movie doesn’t do that. In fact, just about any appearance by the title character external to the events of the film itself is of the real Diana Nyad, long distance swimmer and motivational speaker. It breaks the sense of consistency within this world a little, but it does speak to the typical instincts of the movie’s pair of documentarian directors, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin -here making their narrative feature debut- and their attraction to their real-life subject, drawn with the utmost reverence.
Nyad is a fascinating subject to be taken on by artists so compelled by true stories (Vasarhelyi and Chin perhaps best known for their Oscar-winning Free Solo) because the truth of her story is up for some debate. The real Nyad has a history of making misleading claims as to her achievements and had her Guinness World Record on the specific swim covered by this film revoked over the inability for it to be independently verified. And the movie clearly takes some licence even apart from that, as biopics are wont to do, with the stakes and the gravity of the premise. The film is openly based on Nyad’s account though, it is a subjective telling of an impressive feat that may or may not have actually been attained. The filmmakers’ responsibility in how they chose to frame it within fact perhaps ought to be called into question, but by and large the movie is free to present its story as it likes. A modestly inspirational story, if a considerably flat one.
Primarily it seems to exist as a showcase for Annette Bening’s grit and dedication -easily one of the most demanding performances she’s ever been called to give- as the sixty-four year old athlete determined to successfully swim the Florida Straits from Havana, Cuba to Key West, which she allegedly managed to do on her fourth attempt over a period of two years (2011-2013). This process is depicted with all the trial and error, the toughness of such an endeavour -in endurance, natural obstacles, and real dangers including toxic jellyfish and sharks. And obviously without going to quite the extremes, Bening takes on a lot of the physical challenges that come with long-distance swimming. She immerses herself in the role in other ways too, most notably through a bluntness of conviction that aligns with the directors' vision of this character as a symbol of a fight against the stigma of age.
That theme is probably a big thing that drew Bening to the part, as well as Jodie Foster to the role of Nyad's loyal one-time partner and coach Bonnie Stoll -both actresses keenly aware of the limitations imposed on women of a certain age. That is the factor that makes the story compelling and unique, much more than the distance or the hazards or Nyad's gender or sexuality. And though the directors bring it up only sparingly, they consciously draw attention to it through shot choices, angles, and editing that hone in Nyad's aged features. You're meant to understand the great barrier in this and also that this success is a long time coming.
Recurring snapshots through the movie glimpse at Nyad's childhood and early swimming aspirations, with small allusions to the abuses she suffered that her swimming was ostensibly an escape from. There are few particulars to the juxtapositions though, these scenes are merely cut-in to reinforce a sense of earned nobility in this late great trial. And it is a frankly disingenuous structural and thematic choice, substantively shallow. It doesn’t palpably reveal anything about Nyad, its reluctance to go into specifics leaves its impact meaningless, beyond a generalized sense of her need to prove somebody wrong. We don’t see her struggle against sexism or homophobia in these early images either, because again, age is the boundary she’s breaking -something that has nothing to do with her past and everything to do with her present.
Additionally the flow of the movie is rather mundane, like a steady current. There are interesting points in the journey, including a couple admitted embellishments -one involving a shark- but there’s nothing to surprise you. Even the other big factor of risk for Nyad, the fact she’s completing this swim without a protective cage, doesn’t inspire the magnitude it should. The close friendship between Nyad and Stoll is one distinct feature, that both actresses play very well, and that lends a certain heft of emotional stakes to how much Nyad is risking her life. But it’s not so strongly developed by the script as to be riveting. Rhys Ifans plays the captain of the boat monitoring her swims as the other noteworthy character of the film -but he is a stock character if ever there was one. The rest of the gang of professionals who help Nyad at various points, all directly based on real people as the end credits show, don’t mean much of anything here except to act as a generic block for the ‘team’ Nyad eventually refers to as instrumental to helping her complete the swim. The movie itself in execution only makes that argument for Stoll.
Still, there are touches to the movie that give it character and even a minor sense of charm. There's a very cute scene where Nyad goes to one of her speaking engagements with a group of children to whom she explains the swim and how much it entails -an under-emphasized part of her character is her desire to be an inspiration, and this is the one real scene that basks in it. Bening and Foster’s chemistry comes with a rapport capable of overcoming weak dialogue, and that pays off especially in the ending. The movie does an adequate job as well emphasizing the scale of the swim, and especially the nights -about three of which Nyad has to swim through.
But even discounting questions of honesty in its telling, it's not a particularly impactful or impressive movie. Photos in the end credits show the cast posing with the real Nyad and Stoll, and there's a definite sense that Nyad asserted some level of control in the approach to this adaptation. For Vasarhelyi and Chin, capturing a story comes more naturally than recreating one. And Nyad is a movie not particularly apt at hiding that it is a consolidation of a public narrative more than a story. It is decent enough for a feature debut -demonstrating just the sort of competency that could launch these directors into journeyman careers under Disney or Warner Bros. But in the end, Nyad is too stale and too cynical -exactly what Netflix wants in an awards contender.

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