REVIEW: ‘Nyad’ sinks more than it swims

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are known for their documentaries chronicling individuals who do incredible physical feats. Maybe they should have just done a documentary with this subject, too.

The duo’s latest film is a narrative feature centered on distance swimmer Diana Nyad. In the late 70s, Nyad (Annette Bening) participated in several open water attempts, swimming around the island of Manhattan and from the Bahamas to Florida.

What she wasn’t able to do at that time, though, was conquer a swim from Cuba to Florida. The film picks up with Nyad in the early 2010s, now in her 60s, with a fiery desire to try the swim again. The movie chronicles her attempts with help from her coach and friend Bonnie (Jodie Foster).

There’s no doubt that Diana Nyad pulled off something amazing in her endurance swim across open water. However, the way the story is told cinematically leaves a lot to be desired. For one, the movie tries to cover too much by dramatizing all four attempts Nyad made in her 60s.

In a documentary, showing each of these attempts would make perfect sense as it’s a full chronicle of her athleticism. By doing so as a narrative, though, it becomes an uneven roller coaster of a plot, with the filmmakers having difficulty finding the right time for highs and lows.

One wonders if focusing mainly on her final, successful attempt with a few flashbacks may have been a better way to go. However, speaking of flashbacks, they were another issue with the movie. Sadly, Diana Nyad was a victim of sexual abuse when she was at a swimming academy in her youth.

The film tries to show this part of her life with scenes spliced throughout the film. The problem is it’s never clear if these are actually Nyad’s actual memories to show she’s reflecting on her youth and dealing with trauma, or if it’s just the filmmakers trying to show what happened. These scenes end up feeling disconnected from what’s taking place in the present and their meaning for the character is lost.

With all that said, “Nyad” isn’t a completely empty cinematic experience. Vasarhelyi and Chin have an ability to showcase the amazing ability of the human body and great feats of athleticism by individuals. That ability surfaces here.

Even though they’re not doing a documentary, their dramatization of Nyad’s swim convincingly shows the difficulty of the task and how incredible it is that she pulled it off. Showing how Nyad had to swim through oceanic waves makes one appreciate the athletic achievement and skill needed to accomplish the course.

Unfortunately, this is somewhat undercut by the main protagonist herself. Annette Bening is trying here, but the material lets her down. Nyad often comes across as one dimensional and unlikable, with the writing unable to properly explore her complexities, resulting in Bening just playing Nyad as tough and driven, without additional depth.

It’s a protagonist that pales in comparison to, say, Rocky Balboa in the sixth film. Yes, that’s a fictional example, but it showed the character at a late age revisiting the sport of boxing because he loved it and he felt a passion still there. At the same time, the film explored the person, who he was away from the ring. It enhanced the film and made it more meaningful.

It’s that sort of exploration of an athlete that’s missing here. Because of that, and due to Jodie Foster, it’s the character Bonnie that really shines. Foster gives a really strong, heartfelt performance and her character becomes the emotional core of the film. Her presence on screen keeps a viewer invested.

As for the technical side of things, the filmmakers deserve credit for recreating what it was probably like for the swimmer in the open water. There are a mix of shots underwater and above the surface showing the elements Nyad was up against.

Some of the decisions, such as using CGI to create a shark for dramatic effect and a few of Nyad’s hallucinations from exhaustion didn’t work too well, though. Nearly all of these moments with computer effects, especially a notable one near the end, takes a viewer out of the movie.

“Nyad” is a picture with more cons than pros. There are some highlights in that it tells a story of an amazing athletic achievement and does so quite thoroughly. Plus it features a great performance from Jodie Foster. Yet the storytelling, pacing and writing holds this film down. 2.25 out of 5.