NYAD (2023) | Dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
NYAD. Annette Bening as Diana Nyad in NYAD. Cr. Liz Parkinson/Netflix ©2023
Written by: Belle McIntyre
If you are a fan of gut-wrenching, extreme sports pursued by impossibly driven humans, willing and able to endure prolonged, excruciating pain to attain their goals at any cost then this is the film for you. Directed by the pair who brought you Free Solo, the subject of this bio-pic about marathon swimmer, Diana Nyad (Annette Benning), and her epic challenge to swim from Cuba to Florida is a marriage made in endurance.
NYAD. (L-R) Annette Bening as Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll in NYAD. Cr. Kimberley French/Netflix ©2023
We first are introduced to Diana when she is just turning 60 and it is weighing heavily on her. For the last 30 years since she retired as an athlete she found a successful career as a sports journalist. But this significant birthday ignites a spark which she has not felt in all of this time, and she cannot ignore it. She gets it into her head that she is ready to finally achieve the one swim which defeated her, convinced that her mental maturity will make up for what she has lost physically. Even as her nearest and dearest, former girlfriend-turned-bestfriend, Bonny Stoll (Jodie Foster), keeps hoping it is a notion which will pass, and does nothing to encourage what she sees as an impossible idea, with no good outcomes. When it becomes abundantly clear that Diana is as determined as a dog with a bone, and not to be dissuaded, she finally comes around and agrees to be her coach.
NYAD. Annette Bening as Diana Nyad in NYAD. Cr. Netflix ©2023
Annette Benning is one of my favorite actresses, and I particularly appreciate her lack of vanity. She does not soft pedal the supremely egomaniacal demanding personality of her character and she mostly appears to wear no make-up and a purely utilitarian shag haircut. She endures sunburn, jellyfish stings, violent bouts of vomiting after long hours of swimming. Bonny‘s is a more complex role as she is frequently plagued by doubts about the chances of her friend achieving her dream without doing serious or fatal harm to herself. When Diana decides she will make the swim without the shark cage to protect her, Bonny almost loses it. Diana is so intense and convinced of her ability that she prevails over the judgement of all of her colleagues and manages to get everyone on board with her program.
NYAD. (L-R) Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll and Rhys Ifans as John Bartlett in NYAD. Cr. Kimberley French/Netflix ©2023
She gets the funding and eventually sponsorships and gets a small team committed to making the trip. She has some major bad luck with currents, weather, and jellyfish and has to start over repeatedly, yet she never wavers in her belief in herself. It takes a few years but she finally pulls it off. It is right up there with Philippe Petite walking a tightrope across the twin towers. There is just something endlessly fascinating about people who can be that obsessed and fearless. We get some few insights into incidents in Diana’s background which fuel her commitment, but she remains largely unknowable except to Bonny and it is a delight to see these two consummate actors working together in a beautiful relationship.
