Young Woman and the Sea (2024) User Reviews

Young Woman and the Sea

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 1 June 2024]

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.

🏊 It was a Good Watch 🏊

[DoNotComeToTheCinemaDepressed · 8/10 · 2 June 2024]

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.

Thin tales, but absolutely gorgeous vibes

[chenp-54708 · 6/10 · 31 May 2024]

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.

Got Suckered Into Another Bait and Switch

[bobwpe · 3/10 · 2 June 2024]

I wasn't planning on going to this movie because it didn't seem like one that was directed toward me. However the early reviews and ratings, which didn't come out until a few days before, seem to be pretty good calling the movie inspirational so I thought I'd give it a shot and I took my sweetie and my sister with me. As it turned out most of the movie is just completely made up, I would say less than half of it is even close to the truth. Let's just skip over the patriarchy hurdles she allegedly endured early on and move straight to where she represented the United States in the Paris Olympics. The movie makes you think that she came home at the empty-handed when in fact she won a gold medal and two bronze. There is a scene where it explicitly implies that her trainer and coach poisoned her while she was in the water on her first swim because he didn't want to see a woman Prevail where he had failed. That was completely made up and really was demeaning to the memory of this character. Later it shows him throwing a radio out of the window of a bar when she does complete the swim on her second try. Completely made up. The purpose of this was the demonize one of the male characters, which seem to be a consistent theme throughout. After she fails at her first try there is a scene where she's on her way home in some type of a s*** and she decides that she wants to take another shot at it so she literally pushes her luggage out of a porthole and then pushes her body out of the porthole and into the water where there is a waiting dinghy below for her. That did not happen also completely made up the fact is there is a year between her first and second attempt. I could go on but you get the gist. There is little attempt to accurately represent these events in the life of this female athlete. Appears to have an agenda and it's main purpose is to spread the message. So if that's your cup of tea you'll probably enjoy it. But keep in mind it's mostly b*******.

Outstanding film - you MIST go

[gavin-43770 · 10/10 · 2 June 2024]

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.