You need to know how to deal with failure to reach your goal. Telling an incredible true story of an experienced water marathon specialist in her 60s who pursues her last big goal in the sport she has embraced.
Nyaddirected by the duo Jimmy Chin e Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyidirectors also of the incredible documentary Free Solo (see, it’s on Disney Plus), it also addresses the traumas of the athlete’s past, many of them linked to the abuse she suffered from a former coach when she was still a beginner in swimming. Not believing in any limitations, especially those imposed, Diana fights against the variables: time, emotional exhaustion, exhaustion, sharks, stingrays showing that the possible is within us.
In the plot, we meet Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) a sportswoman known throughout America who a few decades ago attempted a feat that others had also failed to achieve. Time passed, away from swimming pools for a long time, she became a commentator on a television station.
One day, he once again sets out to achieve the goal mentioned decades ago, swimming more than 160 kilometers between Cuba and Florida, a journey full of dangers that is much more impossible than possible. Alongside his inseparable friend and coach Bonnie (Jodie Foster) and a highly qualified team, Diana will need to train her body and combat the emotional conflicts caused by past traumas in pursuit of this incredible goal.
It’s not easy to take a well-known story, with a protagonist who is an American sports personality, and turn it into a movie. More than 160 kilometers, between Cuba and Florida, a swim in the open sea, full of dangers.
The script is surgical in its narrative around the following question: What leads someone to this feat? Seeking to answer this response through emotional conflicts, linked to traumas that follow her throughout her life, also without failing to show the strong personality of the protagonist, often selfish, bordering on arrogance in many moments, the feature film that premiered on Netflix Brazil At the beginning of November, we are heading towards the deconstruction of an icon of water sports, a woman who, through her goal, inspired many others.
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Extremely well filmed, it feels like we are there next to the swimmer the whole time without it ever being boring, the result of a brilliant duo Jimmy Chin e Elizabeth Chai Vasarhely in his first fiction project but with enormous experience in showing other sides of intense challenges, as in the aforementioned Free Solo and in other works with the National Geographic label. It is also worth highlighting the entire cast, especially the wonderful Annette Bening e Jodie Foster who shine brightly in a very difficult role.