Nyad (2023) – Goes Swimmingly

Released: 3rd November 2023
Seen: 7th February 2024

In 2013 at the age of 63, Diana Nyad did something borderline impossible. She swam from the shores of Havana, Cuba to the beaches of Key West, Florida. The journey was 110 miles long and involved her staying in the water for 53 hours to complete it… it also took her 5 tries, four of those happening while she was in her 60s. Along with her team in a nearby boat and her coach Bonnie Stoll, Diana pulled off something truly staggering that’s only been accomplished by 2 other people before her (That we know of). Now sure, the Guinness World Record people and the World Open Water Swimming Association have not certified the swim (short version, they claim it counts as assisted because she wore a protective suit to avoid being stung by jellyfish and may have been touched every now and then by crew members who were trying to help her every now and then during the 2 and a half days she was swimming in the freezing ocean) but fortunately the biopic Nyad gives us a version of the story worth hearing.

Nyad mostly focuses on the final four tries to make the swim, with Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) teaming back up with Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) to go through the intense training that would be needed. Of course, this training has the emotional element of Diana wanting to accomplish this swim as her legacy and her controlling nature creating rifts with everyone involved that will be the main source of tension (along with the failed swims) and it all culminates with the moment Diana finishes her swim. Every now and then the film will splice in actual news footage of the real Diana Nyad to give a sense of when these events were happening and the reaction to them. There are a few scenes that delve into Diana’s childhood and help us get to know her on a much deeper level but beyond that, it’s very standard sports biopic stuff here.

Being a sports biopic built around a figure who is very easy to look up means it is a little hard to build tension in what’s going to happen, you can literally scroll Wikipedia and get all the beats of what Diana went through but Nyad is so well done in terms of how it’s assembled that even knowing what’s coming doesn’t make it less effective. The dark shots of the boat at night lit by a simple red light are tense as hell, every failed swim feels like a gut punch and you can see in Diana’s face how much she wants to keep going even when it has a high risk of killing her. It slowly builds intensity through careful work, taking the time it needs to make sure you feel every mile being swum to the point of putting a literal counter on screen so you know just how long this woman was in the water.

It also helps that the actual scenes of the swimming look great, you feel like you’re right there in the water just barely able to keep up with this powerhouse athlete and can understand all the dangers. Each potential risk from the tides to the sharks is made visually clear early on and when you’re out in the middle of the ocean with this crew, you can feel it. It feels like the swim might never end, just seeing nothing in every direction makes every moment so much more isolating. It manages to keep things exciting and keep the audience drawn in because you can feel the hope that everyone has that they can pull it off, and every time they fail is truly devastating.

Of course, the main reason Nyad is currently being reviewed and thought about is that its two leading actresses are Oscar-nominated for their work in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress and it’s fair to say that these are legacy nominations for two veterans of the industry who haven’t been nominated in decades. That’s not to say their performances aren’t great, it’s Annette Bening and Jodie Foster and they are always great in every role, but it feels like this year their performances are just a little too understated to be put in that conversation. It’s a pair of performances that absolutely do the job required, the chemistry between them is off the charts and it’s impossible not to find the pair of them absolutely compelling but that’s mostly because it’s Jodie and Annette and they’re just that good naturally.

It also doesn’t help that there are moments when that tension fails and Nyad just feels a little slow and exhausting, like you’ve been trying to swim 100 miles yourself. Sure, there are some genuinely exciting moments to be had but there’s also the reality that watching people talk about planning a big swim can get a little tiresome after a bit. There is a tiny part of me that wonders if this story would’ve been better handled as a pure documentary instead of this recreation, just to try and deal with those moments where things felt a bit slow.

For the most part, Nyad is a well-made sports biopic about a fascinating person with a couple of legends in the lead roles that’s undeniably an enjoyable watch, it just doesn’t feel like it’s a film that demands multiple rewatches. There are a fair few really great scenes and a couple of moments that make the film a decent time to watch (most of those at the hands of the leads) but it really is just another sports biopic and if you’re not a fan of either of those things this isn’t going to be the one to suddenly convert you to that genre.