"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” asks poet Mary Oliver in her famous poem, The Summer Day. This is the basis of the life of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), the protagonist of the Netflix biopic, Nyad. She is about to take a once-in-a-lifetime plunge to swim from Cuba to Florida, but there’s just one hindrance—the journey is 780 km long, and she is in her 60s. Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Nyad tells the story of how the swimmer achieved the feat in 52 hours in 2013 at the age of 64 without a protective shark cage. The film marks the 10th anniversary of the milestone.
Nyad first hit the spotlight in 1975 for swimming 28 miles (45 km) around the island of Manhattan, followed by her attempt to swim from Cuba to Key West three years later. She, however, had to be pulled out in 42 hours due to strong currents. The film begins 30 years after that with the athlete celebrating her 60th birthday with Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), her friend and former racquetball player.
What starts with a game of Scrabble inside the house, quickly moves outdoors, and before you know it, Diana is in the pool, swimming for hours. Every time she takes a dive, the scenes are intercut with glimpses from her childhood, how she became passionate about the sport and her dysfunctional family, thanks to her toxic father. For Nyad, water serves as an outlet for her emotions, something which is captured evocatively by Bening, who lives and breathes as the sportstar, through the two hours.
The only fallout of the film is that it doesn’t delve into Nyad’s life post her historic feat, which was riddled with controversies, with the Guinness Book of World Records revoking her achievement because she was accompanied by a team of divers throughout the swim. Less a biopic and more a film that serves to inspire, this is a production that seeks to register the idea that one is never too old to chase their dreams. And that’s not a bad thing.
