Let’s get the controversies out of the way at the starting line and acknowledge that the Oscar-bait film “Nyad” brushes aside the questions involving legendary marathon swimming Diana Nyad’s history of sometimes embellishing her accomplishments, as well as the questions some still have about Nyad’s 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida at age 64, which has never been officially certified by the World Open Water Swimming Association.
Here’s what is not in doubt. On Sept. 2, 2013, on her fifth attempt to accomplish the mind-boggling feat of swimming from Cuba to Key West, Diana Nyad did it. Whether or not there should be an asterisk next to that record due to Nyad wearing a full bodysuit or perhaps being touched by a crew member is up to the purists and the official organizations to debate.
What’s clear is that Oscar-winning documentarians Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”) and the marvelous Annette Bening have teamed up for a rousing and inspirational albeit formulaic story that perfectly captures the indomitable, irrepressible, formidable and yes, at times exhausting-to-be-around essence of Nyad. This is one of the most impressive performances of Bening’s storied career, with Jodie Foster doing equally resonant work as Nyad’s real-life best friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll. When Bening and Foster are onscreen together, it’s movie magic. They don’t just have chemistry; they’re chemistry professors.
The smart, warm, funny and insightful screenplay by Julia Cox follows a comfort-viewing blueprint, from the moment we open with Diana and Bonnie engaging in the comfortable bantering and bickering of longtime friends, through Diana’s 60th birthday party, which has her feeling melancholy and lamenting that her best years are behind her, and society doesn’t have much use for women of her age, and people these days just don’t strive to be great. (“Where’s the excellence?” she exclaims to Bonnie.) Eff that, says Diana. More than three decades after she tried and failed to swim from Cuba to Florida, she’s going to take up the challenge once again.
Cue the “Rocky”-style training montages, as Bonnie agrees to become Diana’s coach and they go about the business of wooing potential sponsors and recruiting a crew, including the stoic captain Dee Brady (Karly Rothenberg), the biochemist and jellyfish expert (and you need a jellyfish expert, because they will come after you in the water) Angel Yanagihara (Jeena Yi) and the crusty, independent-minded navigator John Bartlett aka the Mickey to Diana’s Rocky, and Rhys Ifans lends great heart and soul to what could have been a clichéd role.
Bening infuses Nyad with an infectious personality — but also perfectly captures Nyad’s tremendous ego, as she makes everything about herself, barely acknowledging the sacrifices her friends and crew members are making as she tries and fails repeatedly to complete the swim. We also see glimpses of Nyad’s frequent lapses into hyperbole, as she spins the same stories over and over, adding just a little more sugar and spice to the details with each telling of the tale.
Directors Vasarhelyi and Chin expertly sprinkle in flashback sequences, with Diana’s stepfather pushing her to strive for greatness, and an influential coach and mentor turning out to be a monster who sexually assaults her. They also do a great job of weaving in footage of the real Diana Nyad, whether it’s an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, snippets of archival footage, or audio from Nyad. It helps to create a docudrama-style vibe.
In the 2013 sequences, the filmmakers realize there’s not all that much excitement in depicting a swimmer pushing forward for hour after hour, so they visualize Diana’s hallucinations in a trippy, almost comedically bizarre fashion. (Is that…the Taj Mahal?) Hey, you can only have so many scenes of Bonnie and John telling Diana the currents are too strong, and she’s not making any progress, and it’s time to give it up, and Diana responding that they’ll have to drag her dead body out of the water because she’s going to keep going.
“Nyad” doesn’t shy away from the fact that nobody asked Diana Nyad to swim from Cuba to Florida and that while her efforts may serve as an inspiration to us all to keep on trying and all that jazz, she’s doing it for herself, for her own ego, to serve her own insatiable appetite to have meaning and yes, to be in the spotlight. Bonnie is our surrogate, calling out Diana whenever Diana gets too self-absorbed. With Bening giving an all-in, nomination-worthy performance and Foster providing invaluable supporting work, “Nyad” is an effectively inspirational biopic.
