- Title: Young Woman and the Sea
- IMDb: link
Based on the true story of the first woman to swim the English Channel, Daisy Ridley stars as Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle. After filling in a little of her early life (including surviving the Measles as a child to the utters surprise of everyone), the film moves forward with the young Trudy’s (Olive Abercrombie) fascination with swimming following her sister Meg (Lilly Aspell and Tilda Cobham-Hervey) into lessons and eventual competitions proving herself the best female swimmer England had to offer. This will lead to the Olympics and eventually the English Channel as new challenges to overcome.
Based on Glenn Stout’s biography, Young Woman and the Sea is your standard biopic fair buoyed by the performance of Ridley and director Joachim Rønning being able to frame the effect of Trudy’s obsession and accomplishment on herself, her family, men who bristled against her daring, women and young girls of England who were inspired, and the niche audience of other swimmers equally obsessed.
With its female protagonist and the story of swimming for history, the film plays on similar themes to last year’s Nyad, although I think Young Woman and the Sea is ultimately the more satisfying of the two films offering a broader context to events, as something more than only an athlete’s personal dragon to slay, while also providing a far more likable protagonist to root for.
The film is built upon Ridley’s performance who shines both in and out of the water. Cobham-Hervey gets a bit lost in the middle of the script but she along with Sian Clifford as their coach and Jeanette Hain as their mother play important strong female roles as well. In terms of conflict, not only does Trudy struggle against the sea and lack of funding and support for women’s swimming, but also her traditionalist father (Kim Bodnia) who takes time to warm to the idea and Christopher Eccleston as a coach the U.S. enforces on her who is only missing a long enough mustache to twist and laugh manically as he does what he can to prevent Trudy from fulfilling her dreams for his own selfish purposes.
Watch the trailer
