Directed By Joachim Ronning

Starring – Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham

The Plot – Daisy Ridley stars as accomplished swimmer, Trudy Ederle, who was born to immigrant parents in New York City in 1905. Through the steadfast support of her older sister and supportive trainers, she overcame adversity and the animosity of a patriarchal society to rise through the ranks of the Olympic swimming team and complete the staggering achievement — a 21-mile trek from France to England.

Rated PG for thematic elements, some adult language and partial nudity

Young Woman and the Sea | Official Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

It feels like centuries have passed since Disney excelled in underdog stories, but ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ rights many of the company’s corresponding wrongs, with a rich abundance of heart and humanity within its true story that feels made for the silver screen. It’s quite remarkable that Disney spent little to no time and energy marketing this for the audience because it has a lot to say about equal rights and toxic prejudice that resonates evidently in today’s world, proving that as much time that has followed since the actions depicted in the film, we’ve actually learned very little in the mistakes of the past. Aside from Ederle being a German immigrant living in America, at a time when tensions were uneasy between the two sides, her sociological handicap as a woman feels even more conflicting, with a disgustingly degrading case of sexism not only undercutting the capabilities and achievements of many female athletes for the time, but also driving much of the movie’s conflict, as Trudy prepares to conquer adversities that everyone has spent her whole life telling her she’s incapable of mastering. The performance from Ridley moves mountains, blessing Trudy with determination, poise and especially charm in ways that never loses sight of the ambitious little girl from within, who once chose to dream in a world attempting to keep her from such. Ridley’s chipper demeanor goes a long way in weathering the storm from a world constantly trying to bring her down, and as Trudy kills the world with kindness and matter-of-fact sincerity, it’s forcing the figures in her life to change by deconstructing their unnecessary prejudice, in turn cementing meaningful turns from an extensive ensemble, in everybody from Cobham-Hervey to Graham to Sian Clifford, that keeps Ridley from having to do all of the heavy lifting emotionally by herself. As for story, the structure does fall a bit conventional for anyone who has seen any two of these sports biopics, but it does do two things tremendously well, in that it not only articulates the hatred of a world that is constantly refusing to change, but also the measuring of magnitude in Trudy’s long-term goal of swimming 21 miles across the English Channel. On the latter, the film doesn’t get as gruesome or visceral as last year’s ‘Nyad’ did, but it does coherently illustrate the unforgiving conditions in everything from unpredictable weather patterns to an army of jelly-fish that add dimensions to the already grueling physical tow that such a swim presents to the anatomy, in turn effortlessly appraising the dramatic enveloping that the film is at its very best while utilizing. While Amelia Warner’s score packs a thunderously inspiring appeal that imbeds intensity and tragedy to Trudy’s constant uphill swim, no attained emotion in the film ever feels meandering, manipulative or melodramatic in the most obvious kind of way, instead summoning back-breaking tension and overwhelming stakes amid the in-the-water cinematography that allows us to taste the constant power struggle of Trudy’s mission as closely as a screen can capably capture. Speaking of cinematography and all around production values, the film breathlessly transforms to 1924, with tremendous attention to detail in everything from atmospheric color-grading to thorough set decoration and wardrobe, in order to convey constant permanence in the memory of audience. Cinematographer Oscar Faura is the same visionary who has elicited atmospheric dread and downtrodden in films like ‘The Orphanage’ and ‘A Monster Calls’, but here he’s able to seamlessly articulate a distinctive look into a particular place in time, and while the tweaking with the color in presentation feels seamless, it’s Oscar’s dexterity among framing near and wide angles that provides a greater emphasis into the overwhelming magnitude of Trudy’s mission, illustrating to the audience what lies ahead, even when Trudy and her team aboard the boat can’t properly read. It’s certainly a film that doesn’t get as occupied with style as some other biopics tend to do, instead appraising its focus to the story and corresponding message that speaks volumes to a world that even a hundred years later still refuses to learn from its own preconceived cultural ignorance.

NEGATIVES

While the film is able to tonally evade much of the meandering melodrama that has condemned previous sport underdog biopics, some awkward extensions of prolonged humor provide a few tonal clashes throughout the film, which alleviate the edge of the aforementioned stakes that the film is continuously pumping out. Humor in a drama is certainly nothing new, as many films use it to elicit levity and dimensions to a film that would otherwise be considered one-dimensional, but here those delves feel conjured from an entirely different movie, where clever editing and even nudity are used to generate a pulse within the audience, and one that doesn’t always garner meaning into the world that Ronning is attempting to elicit. In fact, the film is able to look like one from 1924, but not exactly feel like one from that age, especially with the conflict of male dominance and toxic masculinity feeling like easily solved actions whenever Trudy is forced to deal with it. Particularly, I’m speaking on the sections with her father and other powerful male characters, in which she always responds with a clever quip or defiance of authority without hesitation, and while I don’t exactly expect a Disney movie to get too dark into the realities that women faced in their societal woes, the brushing off here feels irresponsible and even undervalued to the magnitude of the adversity that they continuously faced. It almost feels like Ronning refuses to make the audience uncomfortable for too long, as the disparaging instances receive short-term resolution, and the unwavering spirit of Trudy never feels truly tested in ways that force her to re-evaluate her approach towards conquering her dreams. Finally, and one that will undoubtedly only matter to a fact-hound like me, the film, like other biopics, isn’t exactly factually accurate to the historical significance of what’s depicted, with many elements of the storytelling being shaped to magnify a dramatic relevance for cinematic rendering. If these were unimportant or irrelevant aspects to Trudy’s story, then I could easily forgive them for how they’re manipulated to shape convenience in the narrative, but when pertaining to instances of Trudy’s own difficulty with learning to swim, Trudy’s unseen gold medal win during the 1924 Olympics, or Trudy’s return to America to inspire her secondary comeback of the English Channel, it’s omitting vital aspects of character building to the character’s design, in turn resulting in some illogical aspects that directly took me out of the engagement. The worst is definitely Trudy’s second attempt with the English Channel, which only hours after swimming half of it, sees her attempt to swim it again, with apparently a resilient body that never tires or aches.

OVERALL
‘Young Woman and the Sea’ splashes as a traditional feel-good sports biopic that bestows an inspiringly gutsy true story urging us to dig deeper in order to change the course of history. Between riding the waves of male-commanded prejudices, or Daisy Ridley’s single best performance to date, with uplifting elements of courage and resiliency to her appeal, the film has the heart and lungs for the two-hour engagement, proving that they do in fact make them like they used to, but in the most meaningful kind of ways.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-