Time: 120 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Offensive language & child sex abuse themes
Cast:
Annette Bening as Diana Nyad
Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll
Rhys Ifans as John Bartlett
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

I was mainly aware of Nyad because of how it had been nominated for a number of awards. After it received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, I decided to check it out for myself. It really looked like a generic biopic almost tailor made for the Oscars, and I really wasn’t expecting much from it, but it was better than I expected at least.

I don’t know too much about the real life story of Diana Nyad myself, I have heard some accusations that she might’ve cheated. However, I am judging this as a movie and its own thing regardless of reality. Nyad’s story had me interested for the most part, but it is very by the books and does a lot of what other sports biopics have done. While we follow Nyad as she attempts to achieve this goal of hers to swim from Cuba to Florida, we aren’t given some insight as to why she wants to do this outside of this being something she wanted to achieve for a while. That doesn’t bother me, but it does mean that we have a very external view of her throughout, and are just expected to go along with what she’s aiming for. The pacing is very inconsistent, occasionally suddenly stopping and starting throughout. There are also flashbacks to Nyad when she was younger, mainly focussing on the abuse from her coach. However, the movie merely touches on this aspect and doesn’t go into it much, with much of it being conveyed through sudden and brief flashbacks when they need to motivate Nyad in her goal. Considering the subject matter, that probably could’ve been handled better, and ends up feeling distracting despite being a notable aspect for her. The movie really shines the most in the actual swimming scenes. On the whole though, the movie was pretty standard and feels so much like a Wikipedia article converted to a feature film that you wished that you watched a documentary instead (ironic considering that the filmmakers are known for documentaries).

The performances are the best parts of the movie and likely the main reason most people are watching it in the first place. Setting aside whether or not she should’ve been nominated for Best Actress, Annette Bening is decent enough in the lead role of Diana Nyad, even if she’s definitely delivered better performances in the past. Her physical work is impressive and does a good job portraying her. Jodie Foster fares even better, delivering an endearing performance and the best in the film. Foster and Bening play off each other really well and share some great chemistry. Rhys Ifans is also really good in his part.

Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi are mainly known for making documentaries like Free Solo, making Nyad their first narrative feature film. While there are definitely some issues, it was a decent first movie. The cinematography is solid and the swimming scenes are captured really well. I also liked the use of archival footage in between scenes with the actors. Not all of the creative choices worked out well though; the editing isn’t great, mainly with the sudden Nyad childhood flashbacks. Then there are some odd visual choices, especially with the inclusion of hallucination sequences, which are so out of place (and not in a good way).

Nyad is a very standard and by the numbers sports biopic, but it is made well enough, and is carried by the good performances.