User Reviews

In a logical, reasoned sense I know that Young Woman & The Sea is not a 9/10 star film. It is a Disney-fied family drama that sometimes features cringe-worthy dialogue or tropes. But if the purpose of the cinematic experience is to tug at the heartstrings and invoke strong emotional reactions, one almost cannot be helped to be sucked into the flick.

For a very basic overview, Young Woman & The Sea tells the story of Trudy Ederle (Daisy Ridley), a rare female swimmer in 1920s New York who would first represent her country in the Olympics and then attempt to be the first woman to swim the English Channel. Inspired by sister Margaret (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), mother Gertrude (Jeanette Hain), and pushed by coach Lottie Epstein (Sian Clifford), Trudy must not only show her physical aquatic prowess but also overcome the sexism of the times by handler Jabez Wolffe (Christopher Eccleston) and even father Henry (Kim Bodnia).

The biggest thing Young Woman has going for it is that it is hitting cinemas at an absolute perfect time, what with Caitlin Clark (and others) inspiring a wave of appreciation for female stories revolving around sports. That isn't to minimize the film's ability to invoke emotion, however, as director Joachim Ronning and writer Jeff Nathanson craft a solid narrative here. It is well-shot (the swimming scenes are a delight), full of forward momentum, and consistently shows the obstacles placed in young Trudy's path simply by dint of her gender and how she hurdles practically all of them.

Ridley is also perfect for the lead role, channeling her Star Wars success nicely here. For Young Woman to work, audiences need to be fully emotionally invested in Trudy's struggles and triumphs, and Ridley has no trouble getting those emotions across.

Going into the movie, I was worried it would be a schmaltzy Disney family flick-and it certain ways it very much is. This isn't a hard-hitting, in-the-weeds, serious prestige drama. While it covers all the requisite issues Trudy's story entails, it does so with a coat of varnish to make it enjoyable for all audiences.

But in the final reckoning, other than a few cringe-worthy dialogue moments, Young Woman & the Sea was so emotional and inspirational that it consistently won me over-especially the final act (and even closing credits) that reference the real-life Trudy to cement the story's grounded nature. Such investment makes it hard to dislike this film.

On the face of it, it's a bit similar to last year's "Nyad", only I found this to be a more engaging depiction of the story of a young woman determined to struggle against not just the water, but of the societal limitations put upon her sex and assumed about her potential a mere century ago. As a young child, Trudy Ederle contracts measles. The doctor thinks that nothing can be done, but she has no intention of throwing in the towel yet and decides she'd rather have some cheese than a coffin! This illness is taking place against news of a maritime tragedy that saw many women killed. They were afraid to leave the burning ferry boat because they couldn't swim. Trudy wants to learn to swim, her mother wants her to learn to swim - but her father, an immigrant German butcher, is much more conformist. It's not right for women to swim! Now we get our first indication of the strength of mind of the women in this family as, sure enough, mother (Jeanette Hain) finds her and sister "Meg" (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) a women only swimming club run by "Lottie" (Sian Clifford) and next, after some seriously punishing training sessions, she (now Daisy Ridley) has her heart set on the Paris Olympiad. History takes over her story now as we follow this hugely inspirational person who sets out to prove that her sex need be no barrier to her abilities and that with the right support around her, she can accomplish just about anything. A combination of Ridley's enthusiastic and exhausting performance and a strong slew of supporting actors make this a genuinely quite poignant piece of cinema. Not only does it address issues of sexual repression, but also of racial and cultural attitudes that needed looking at from both within and without. Stephen Graham turns out well as the savvy coach Burgess and Kim Bidnia also strikes a fine balance between caring, fearing and inspiring as her father Henry. I am not really a fan of Christopher Eccleston, and his overly hammy depiction of Scotsman Jabez Wolffe didn't quite work for me, but this story is built well from the sand up by Joachim Rønning allowing us to feel some of the emotions running through the veins of this groundbreaking athlete and understand just quite why the public at the time cared, too.

Just got out of a Screening of Young Woman and the Sea.

Elements of the Film -

• 🤔 The Film had this Strange Tone to it. Most of the Characters were playing it seriously but Daisy Ridleys Character was doing this Weird Whimsical thing during a lot of her Performance. Which was actually Amusing to watch Actually.

• ⏩ The Film was also doing this Going through the motions thing of "Well, this happened, and then this happened and then that happened". Which actually kept me engaged actually 😂. The Pacing was really good because of this aspect.

• 1.a 📜 The Plotline is based on Real Events (although somebody noted that, many things were either skipped over, or completely made up), of Gertrude Ederle and her Swim of the English Channel.

• 1.b 📜 It's the Feel Good Biopic of a Person is in Some sort of Difficulty, that said person finds a way to overcome that difficulty, and gains the Victory/Overcomes the Situation.

• 🎥🌊🚢 There's quite a few Shots of the water and a shot of the gigantic ocean liner that were huge in scale. Some really Gorgeous Shots.

🏊 The Actual 1st and 2nd attempt swims were great to watch especially the 2nd one.

• 🔍🌊She faces the vast expanse of a body of water.

• 🎶 She has music to help her on her way.

• 🍗 She's continually going forward, she's then hungry and gets some food during the swim.

• 🎵 The music box is then broken.

• 📝 The Press are then putting pressure on her.

• 🎐 She has to swim through a line of Jellyfish. Being absolutely shredded as she moves through it.

• 🌊 She then has to move through "the shallows" with no marker (boat showing her the line towards the beach).

• 🌑 Continue through the shallows in utter Darkness.

Overall, In the End, it was a Good Watch.

Daisy Ridley is exceptional in this true story of inspiration and single minded determination. Sure it isn't 100% accurate but no fiilm version of real life events ever is. It feels very authentic with the sets and the way it is filmed. There is no point of the film that ever dulls, even for a moment and I can't understand why this story hasn't been told before due to the phenomenal achievements of this woman in such a make dominated culture of the time.

Full marks to the rest of the cast for their part in this film. It's been a long time since I've seen a film that I wanted to watch again straight away.

Think of a list of movies coming out nowadays that are perfectly family friendly, make a strong point, have almost universal emotional appeal, and are actually good. It's not a long list, but this movie is surely on it.

The story may seem formulaic at first, but that formula works wonders for a reason. The heart of this movie bleeds through its rich emotion and clever direction. The ensemble cast provide a strong blend of timely humor, intense rigidity, and admirable courage.

Chiefly, Daisy Ridley's performance is nothing short of masterful.

This movie might have suffered from a bad marketing strategy as I fear not many will see it for lack of knowledge of its existence. What a shame.

This movie is everything you want in a movie. Moving, engaging, well paced, funny, meaningful, important, and impactful. What a great, great movie.

A standard sports biographical story that is filled with cliches, yet, strives with strong waves with a wonderful performance from Daisy Ridley.

Sports biographical picks have become tame and shallow that its cliches and predictableness are apparently clear from the start. Despite this narrative about Gertrude Ederle being filled with Disney tropes and emotions, its solid atmosphere, gorgeous camerawork, musical score, and strong performances helped keep the tides high and waving with some intense swimming sequences and atmospheres explored. Including some solid strong directions on how its themes, emotions, and atmospheres were approached from filmmaker Joachim Rønning.

Ridley deserves a second chance as she is a pretty good actress, it's unfortunately how the latest Star Wars installment had done her dirty and overshadowed some of the good works she's been in. Nevertheless, a solid sports biographical pick is in the house and I'm happy to see Ridley is still being given opportunities to show her talents. Honestly, one of the better movies made by Disney recently.