In portraying the long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad in the Netflix biopic Nyad, Annette Bening makes a believable, detailed portrait out of an unbelievable, frankly bananas story. In 1978, when she was 28, Nyad attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida, a 54-hour-plus journey through waters riddled with jellyfish, the sting of which was so strong it was like being electrocuted. She was forced to abort, having completed 76 miles, only some of them in a straight line.
Thirty-two years later, Nyad started training for a second attempt. While sports psychologists note that mental resilience is a bigger factor than physical strength in long-distance swimming, it was still, objectively, a ridiculous idea. She was bus-pass age – and the jellyfish hadn’t gone anywhere.
