Young Woman and the Sea
review by Bobby Blakey
Daisy Ridley has taken on a wide variety of roles since her breakout performance in the Star Wars franchise in films including Chaos Walking, The Marsh King’s Daughter and many more. Now she is teaming up with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tells and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil director Joachim Rønning for the film Young Woman and the Sea. The film based on the book “Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World” by Glenn Stout also stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler. Could this film bring the inspiration to the audience, or will it sink before making it to shore?
Young Woman and the Sea follows an accomplished swimmer 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.
To be honest I had no interest in this film. I like Ridley, but the trailer just didn’t catch my attention much and kind of left my radar altogether. As I dived in when it hit Disney+ I found myself a lot more interested than I thought I would be, but it’s not without its minor issues.
This is one of those inspirational stories that looks to not only bring a piece of history to the forefront but showcase the strength of the human spirit. We have seen these kinds of films 100 times, but it’s the focus on not only the impossible task of swimming the Channel, but also the period being its own character. This time in history alone makes it more interesting in how they must deal with and accomplish things is interesting and reminds you how hard things really were to pull this off.
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Where this all works and even the long trek of the swim keeps you invested, the early pacing is a bit slow, and I think could have been trimmed down a bit. There are numerous story elements that I know are meant to showcase more of what she is dealing with at home and during the time as a woman but felt like it dragged a little to long at times. While it could have been trimmed up some, it still works to make sure you understand the plight of the times and women themselves.
Even though it moves slow at times, it does move fast through her early races and accomplishments. It works, but I would have preferred to see more of her training and competing to really amp up the swimming aspect of her successes outside of just the big swim. Thankfully they spend plenty of time during this final swim. This is well shot and manages to keep it engaging and intense for something that while impressive and dangerous isn’t the kind of thing usually very exciting to watch.
At the end I found myself enjoying the film more than I expected and even more enjoy learning this piece of history and what it did for women in sports.
Dive into the film and check it out for yourself streaming now on Disney +.