A structural problem undercuts Nyad—including, ironically, the Oscar-nominated lead performance by Annette Bening. Bening plays Diana Nyad, a competitive swimmer and sports journalist whom we meet—after an info dump of newsreel footage about her career—at age 60. Decades after she tried and failed to swim from Cuba to Florida, Nyad takes on the challenge once again, with her longtime friend Bonnie (Jodie Foster, nominated for Best Supporting Actress) serving as coach. In real life, Nyad attempted the crossing five times, which screenwriter Julie Cox and co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi choose to chronicle one by one. And so it feels as if you’re watching the same sequence repeated over and over again: the stubborn, obsessed Nyad declaring her intent to do the impossible; Bonnie and other members of the support team laying out why all the odds are against her; the swim itself, peppered with flashbacks to particularly traumatic events in her youth; and eventually her failure. Then it’s rinse and repeat, with Bening’s admirable commitment to the conviction of her character eventually coming across as megalomaniacal insanity. To its credit, the movie gently questions Nyad’s compulsion—especially as it relates to her treatment of Bonnie—but it’s too eager to sweep all that under the rug when it comes time for the triumphant final swim. Based on Nyad’s memoir, Find a Way.
(2/27/2024)
