NYAD

My main reason for watching this film was to see Jodie Foster's performance.  Her recent film appearances have been few and far between, so I welcomed the opportunity to see her in a performance that garnered her an Oscar nomination (her first since 1994).

However her character doesn't have a lot to do, and I came away more impressed with the lead performance of Annette Bening, and a supporting performance by Rhys Ifans.

It's the kind of film that wouldn't normally appeal to me much, a sports drama of sorts about a real person, Diana Nyad, and her remarkable feat of endurance: in her early '60s she became the first person to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida.

Despite Bening's compelling performance, I always feel uneasy about celebrating someone's monomaniacal commitment to doing something which is, when you come down to it, essentially pointless.  But the film could be said to be a celebration of the human spirit and I  did find the conclusion of the film moving and uplifting.

Although I had never heard of Diana Nyad it was obvious that she would succeed (otherwise why make the film?) but despite this I found the story absorbing enough thanks to the performances and to the interesting technical details about how Diana coped with the threat of sharks and other assorted problems.  One should also give credit to the directors of the film  Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.  

I hadn't seen Rhys Ifans in anything much since his breakout performance in 'Notting Hill', so it was a very pleasant surprise to see him in this as an American navigator, and it's a very effective and affecting performance that he gives.

RATING: ✓ If You've Nothing Better To Do