All the pieces are there for Nyad to be a very straight forward sports biopic with some great physical transformation performances and a triumphant ending built around a nice neat failure, failure, success arc and in many ways that’s exactly what Nyad is. However thankfully Nyad rides a fine line as it straddles 6/10, because it is constantly balancing elevation in the hands of the incredible documentarians Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (with their narrative feature debut) and the great performances of Annette Benning and Jodie Foster, whilst regrettably falling into a bevy of tropes and a succumbing to the averageness so many of these films face on the other side of that balance.

Credit

For as much as Nyad believes it’s an atypical sports drama, in many ways at its core its just not and in writing this even I feel like I’m giving a little bit too much credit to the films strongest elements. For although in regards to swimming, we have never really viewed a film with this much astounding camera-work, we have seen before many films that have had standard sports drama scenes bolstered by sensational actual sports sequences. With Chin and Vasarhelyi there is of course a pedigree for such extreme feats being caught on film with their incredible work on the documentary films Free Solo and The Rescue and although their strengths do indeed shine through on the practical and visceral depictions of Diana Nyad’s marathon swimming failures and successes, there is at times a little blandness and stuntedness in the framing of certain dialogue scenes. A lot of these frame in such a manner as to simply let Benning and Foster do great work and let the camera stand back, but when the swimming is so visceral and when these sort of scenes are so stunted, then an issue arises. The film too is framed in many ways by a series of flashbacks that are neither given enough weight as to not have Nyad’s story be entirely framed around this childhood abuse, but also are edited and shot with this bizarre filter upon them that screams “this is a flashback” as if we wouldn’t understand. But this filter does not tell the audience anything and looks really awful I have to say. The screenplay by Julia Cox does a fine job at relaying the prickliness of Nyad as a person and the interior strength and almost naivety in achieving her goals without fear or thought, but the masterstroke of the film in regards to screenplay and performance is the framing of this as a tale of friendship and mentorship with Foster as Bonnie Stoll, Nyad’s friend and coach on these famous swims. For as good as Benning is here and for how immense her undertaking was in preparing and performing this role, Foster kind of steals the show, although I am in no way (beyond a love of Foster) falling in line with the notion that this is an especially Oscar worthy performance, it is by far the films most enjoyable and most endearing element. Overall the film just feels a little standard throughout, but of course like the old adage says “have a few good scenes and a great ending and the audience will forgive you”. Cause the ending is great, an absolute triumphant goosebumps moment, that regrettably has a whole lot of mediocre leading up to it.

-

A 6/10 that once it gets to its major sequences really does something exciting and visual with the sports biopic, with invigorating sequences that I have never seen before in a narrative feature. The film too boasts two sensational performances from Benning and Foster that often fly in the face of the standard biopic tropes. But the tropes are still ever-present and although by the time the film gets its incredibly impactful conclusion you can’t help but cheering, it’s a long road to get there, plagued at times by some of the worst edited and directed and frankly most unaffecting flashbacks I’ve seen in some time. The strong elements are strong enough to recommend the film, but nowhere beyond a 6/10 I have to say.

P.S. Although these are both being proclaimed as huge Oscar possibilities for Benning and Foster, I can’t help but feel in the case of Benning that I have loved at least five more leading and another further five at least supporting performances more than this one – no matter the immense physical challenges undertaken along the shoot.

- Thomas Carruthers