Daisy Ridley leads a feel-good period sports drama that is as formulaic as it is inspirational.
PLOT: The extraordinary true story of Trudy Ederle, the 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.
REVIEW: After the surprise box office success of The Boys in the Boat, Disney shifted Young Woman and the Sea from a streaming debut to a theatrical release. However, the film barely registered during its limited window in May. The inspirational period sports drama is coming to Disney+, where it will likely garner a much larger audience. Despite a familiar formula that borders on cliche, Young Woman and the Sea is still a rousing underdog tale from the same studio that brought us Remember the Titans and Miracle. With a solid ensemble cast led by the always charming Daisy Ridley, Young Woman and the Sea delivers a feel-good tale that hits all of the right notes as it tugs at the heartstrings and beats the drum that every sports flick must land.
Set at the start of the 20th century, Young Woman and the Sea opens with young Trudy Ederle as she miraculously survives the measles. Her mother, Gertrude (Jeanette Hain), and father, Henry (Kim Bodnia), are ecstatic, as is Trudy’s sister Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey). When the girls show interest in learning to swim, Henry is reluctant to let women learn the skill, but Gertrude is adamant. Their coach, Charlotte (Sian Clifford), does not believe that Trudy has what it takes and elects to train Meg, but Trudy’s hard-nosed focus wins out, and she soon racks up records and trophies as the strongest female swimmer in America. A trip to the Olympics does not go as planned, and Trudy begins to see a life of arranged marriage made by her father, a butcher, as the dead end of her career. But, Trudy is invigorated by the idea of swimming the English Channel, a feat at that point only completed by Bill Burgess (Stephen Graham). Trudy and Charlotte find a way to convince James Sullivan (Glenn Fleshler) to finance the feat, to which he begrudgingly agrees.
The first half of Young Woman and the Sea follows Trudy from early childhood through a montage of her accomplishments before eventually beginning her quest for the English Channel at the halfway mark. Clocking in at just over two hours, Young Woman and the Sea never feels like a long movie, with the first half almost rushing by. The second half is equally paced as Trudy meets multiple swimmers vying for the dangerous honor of the shortlist of those successfully crossing the Channel. This includes her new coach, Jabez Wolffe (Christopher Eccleston), who has failed the feat over twenty times. Trudy makes her first and second attempts to cross the Channel dramatically when, in reality, the two tries were separated by an entire year. There is clearly a dramatic element added to how this unfolds in the film, which is one of many liberal decisions made to make a rousing feature film. While this does not detract from the true results of Trudy Ederle’s amazing feat, it does less to distinguish the movie from other sports dramas and instead pulls it closer to the cliche side of the formula for this kind of story.
Young Woman and the Sea is, first and foremost, Trudy Ederle’s story, which means that Daisy Ridley’s performance is vital to making this tale work. Ridley has done solid work since her three-film Star Wars stint, and Trudy may be her most natural and charismatic performance to date. Ridley spends more time in the water than she does delivering dialogue, but she nails the focus and determination that Trudy Ederle put into achieving her goals. It also helps that Ridley is surrounded by a great cast, notably the Ederle clan led by Kim Bodnia and Jeanette Hain. Hain starts the film as the gruff matriarch, but her firmness soon becomes endearing as the film progresses. Kim Bodnia transforms from a reluctant and conservative father who does not believe in his daughter’s passion to her most fervent supporter. Both Sian Clifford as Charlotte and Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Meg Ederle are fantastic in key roles that develop Trudy’s passion. Stephen Graham and Christopher Eccleston have more limited roles here, but both can play into the cliches of the types of coaches seen in sports films without becoming cliches themselves.
Written by Disney regular Jeff Nathanson (The Lion King, Mufasa, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and directed by Joachim Rønning, Young Woman and the Sea nails the visuals and styling of 1920s New York without relying on obvious special effects. Everything is tangible, especially the swimming sequences. Joachim Rønning, who co-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the ocean-set Kon-Tiki alongside Espen Sandberg, has developed into quite the visual storyteller. Rønning is also a Disney regular now, having directed Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and the upcoming Tron: Ares, along with the untitled sixth Pirates of the Caribbean. However, he shows more restraint with this film than I anticipated. The final attempt by Trudy Ederle to cross the English Channel is a rousing sequence that follows the expected formula underdog tales often take. Still, Joachim Rønning delivers the heart-racing excitement the story needs at just the right moments, even if you know exactly what will happen next.
Young Woman and the Sea does not offer any unique plot twists or deviations from the sports drama formula to distinguish this film from the numerous other entries in the genre. But that does not mean this is not a rousing and inspirational film. Well-made with a stirring score from composer Amelia Warner, Young Woman and the Sea relies on a likable Daisy Ridley and a solid cast of supporting performers rallying around a true story that few people likely know despite how globally relevant it was almost one hundred years ago. This is a solid movie that fits right into Disney’s own brand of storytelling for a sanitized look at how female athletes and women in general used to be treated compared to their male counterparts. Whether you are a swimmer or just a fan of a good movie experience, Young Woman and the Sea is a solid outing that deserves an audience when it hits Disney+.
