Young Woman and the Sea
                                 
Director: Joachim Ronning
Year: 2024
Rating: 8.0
It is a fine film that can be emotionally compelling and suspenseful even though you know the outcome. That is because this is a true story and they don't make movies about a woman who tries to swim the English Channel but doesn't make it. This is about Trudy Ederle, an American daughter of a German butcher who was the first female to swim the English Channel and break the record by two-hours. It is an astonishing story in reality and based on a book by Glenn Stout. I don't know about the small details in the film, but nearly all the big stuff is true. On August 6th, 1926, she set off from France and swam the Channel arriving in Dover in 14 hours and 34 minutes. Five men had done it before her, but never as fast. Her record lasted till 1950. She got the largest ticker tape parade ever in NYC history for an athlete. You might wonder cinematically how exciting can a film about swimming for hours be? It is a lonely sport. Just you and the water. Just you fighting through the exhaustion and pain. Well, this does a great job of keeping the viewer invested, riveted. It was quite the journey.



Trudy got the measles when she a young girl, counted out to die as most were back then (fuck you RFK Jr), but she survived and wanted to swim. A woman swimming? Back then? Maybe they could walk out in the water up to their waist, but swim? That was a man's sport.  But she and her sister went out to Coney Island and swam - dog paddle - to get free hotdogs. But her very supportive mother - dad not so much at the beginning - got her into a near secret woman's swimming class run by Charlotte Epstein who was the founder of Woman's swimming in America. And she learned the American crawl - very unladylike. And she started setting world records. She went to the 1924 Olympics - and here for some dramatic reason I suppose - the film differs from the truth. It has her failing in Paris but in fact she won a Gold and a few Bronze medals. Now there was only the Channel. Mixed into this is a lot of family drama, female empowerment, frustrations, male arrogance.



Ederle is played by Daisy Ridley with a winning performance. God knows how much time she must have spent in the water filming and training. I wonder how good a swimmer she really is.  But she looks great. 28 beats per minute. Later in life Ederle lost her hearing due to her childhood disease (fuck you RFK Jr.), joined vaudeville, appeared in a film playing herself and began teaching deaf women how to swim. She lived to 2003. Not a bad life. Tilda Cobham-Hervey plays her sister, Jeanette Hain her mother, Sian Clifford is Epstein. Directing is Joachim Ronning. This is as mainstream as films get. Beautifully shot, great period detail. That opening shot from behind her as she faces the unmerciful sea is chilling. Not a sharp edge to it. Old fashioned and produced by Disney, but it felt good.