Written by Andreas Babiolakis

While Free Solo was a documentary that captured the tedious setup, resetting, and execution of a taxing, insurmountable event (in this documentary, we follow Alex Honnold as he scales El Capitan without any safety of any kind), it still felt like a celebration of perseverance and spirit. Documentary filmmaking duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin managed to depict the tribulations and victory of an accomplishment that usually gets boiled down to Kodak moments or highlight reels. Here, the whole process is captured, and the weight of this climb is felt in full force. It seems exciting on paper that the two directors would tackle their first non-documentary feature film with Nyad, since swimmer Diana Nyad’s own quest feels eerily similar to that of Honnold’s: she willed herself to be the first person to ever swim from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage. What we get instead is a film that is held back by Hollywoodization, and it is unfortunate because there are glimpses of what made Free Solo so special. In the same way that James Marsh brought over his documentarian expertise to The Theory of Everything (particularly the romantic drama’s fixation on images of science, extreme closeups, and the like), Nyad incorporates news footage, visual celebrations of the world (the jellyfish shot is particularly stunning), and other clips to create hypnotic sequences. I just wish the whole film had this kind of magic.

Nyad is played by Annette Bening, who — like always — fully commits to the part via heart, body, and soul. She is coached by best friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) who aims to be her voice of reason when she goes off the deep end. We kick off the film with the understanding that Nyad did not finish her mission thirty years prior in 1979, and that this particular attempt bothered her for decades. Now in her sixties, Nyad decided to set out on this goal again in the 2010s. We see the preparation, the subsequent attempts, and the final run that led to her successful run: one of which was negated by the Guinness Book of World Records for the lack of complete coverage. I don’t doubt that Nyad pulled off this feat, but isn’t this side of the story important? Isn’t it fascinating? Does the self-fulfilment of a titan get questioned by the authenticity of said accomplishment when there isn’t enough documentation? Doesn’t this matter even more considering that the film is, you know, created by actual documentarians? Furthermore, the coverage of these attempts feels more strenuous than what we see in Free Solo, where each test run told us more information that felt vital. While we do get discoveries from each of Nyad’s runs, the third act of this film feels almost unnecessary: as if we had to have a fallout in order to keep going, despite the return of all that “fell out”. Even though Nyad is made by documentary filmmakers, this move feels exceptionally contrived by Hollywood’s conventions, and I cannot help but wonder what a more stripped down film would have felt like.

Despite its flaws, *Nyad* keeps on swimming just like its title athlete.

This also left me thinking about the same kind of paradox others have brought up before me: would this have made for a better documentary? It’s a weird situation because I welcome this feature film attempt mainly because Bening and Foster both shine here with two of their best performances in years, thanks to the complete devotion both bring this late into their respective careers. Bening details both the successes and the self-implosions of being so driven to the point of trying to swim for so many miles. Foster inhabits the care and damage that such an avid supporter would feel. Together, both women create the chemistry necessary to keep this flawed film trucking, and they bounce off one another in almost every single scene. For this reason alone, I am happy that Nyad wasn’t a documentary feature, but I also cannot help but try to picture this end result instead: one that best serves the footage that is clearly out there, makes a case for a disqualified record run, and provides a voice to one of the great swimmers of all time. We instead get a feature film that reminds us never to give up, even though the cookie cutter storytelling presents us with a third act that lessens what true ambition looks like via artificiality. There’s much to like about Nyad, but there is also enough that left me wondering what loving this film may have felt like, especially when we already have this intriguing true story to go off of. Perhaps meeting in the middle with a docudrama may have been the best way forward?

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.