The stories of sports, of resistance, of meeting objectives that demand physical and, of course, mental effort, in which the protagonist crashes again and again without achieving his goal, take into account Nyadcon Annette Bening y Jodie Fosterone of its best exponents.
The film is based on a true story, that of athlete Diana Nyad. You have to have character, determination and strength so that exhaustion does not cloud the objective. Nyad’s goal was, when he was young, to swim the 177 kilometers that separate Cuba from Florida, in the United States. No one had succeeded, and neither had she, on her first attempt.
Frustrated, she abandons the idea.
But years passed and at 60, Nyad set out to be the first person to achieve this.
I wasn’t alone. Her best friend Bennie Stoll accompanied her on every attempt.
It is true that Nyad is at times nothing short of insufferable, but even so, Bonnie and the rest of the small entourage that accompanies her remain by her side, to the limits of the unreasonable.
The same can be said of the viewer, comfortably seated in his living room.
In their fiction debut, documentary director duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo, The Rescue) run the disadvantage of some or many knowing if Diana Nyad swam for three days without a cage to isolate her from the sharks, because the story is known. And she already had other films.
But they bet more on the personal relationship between the characters, both in open water and at home. And clearly without the quality and acting qualities of both actresses, Nyad would not move as she manages to do.
The bond between Diana and Bonnie is complex, at times affectionate, at many others moody. They seem more like a couple – which, for a short time, they were – than friends.
Because you have to bank on what Bonnie bank on: Diana is unbearably selfish, and has built her character based on her mythology.
The scenes of swimming in the sea are combined with Nyad’s memories, fears and dreams, which make the monotony of seeing someone swimming, with or without dangerous jellyfish around them, more bearable.
A whole team
There is a sailor, John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans), a guy who speaks little but who knows the treacherous currents of that area and never stops showing his doubts. And a team to defend Nyad from sharks, which uses electronic pulses mounted on a kayak.
History of dreams, and determination, courage and fortitude, Nyad It is followed with empathy at all times.
Annette Bening’s is a highly demanding role, physically. Warren Beatty’s wife, nominated four times for an Oscar, one of them for American Beauty, plays Nyad with admirable precision. She is a similar age, and both she and Foster have a certain physical resemblance to Diana and Bennie, which is proven when, at the end, as in so many films, the real protagonists are shown.
Both were candidates for Golden Globe, Bening as leading actress, Foster, as supporting actress, and the Screen Actors Guild have nominated them again. Will they make it to the Oscar?
Drama. United States, 2023. 121′, SAM 13. Of: Jimmy Chin y Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Con: Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Rhys Ifans, Anne Marie Kempf, Eric T. Miller. Available in: Netflix.