Young Woman and the Sea

4 outta 5

Young Woman and the Sea is a stirring sports drama that is inspired by the true story of a woman from 100 years ago who swam the English Channel, a feat that was an incredible display of athletic endurance. The film is affably performed and features impressive swimming scenes as the audience will inevitably cheer for the heroine. As it is a Disney Plus original, and Disney has been in the habit of deleting some movies and TV shows from their service lately, it would be advised to check this out as soon as possible, just in case. Also, it is great too, so it has that going for it.

In the early 20th Century, Trudy (Daisy Ridley) is an aspiring athlete who joins the first ever women’s Olympic swim team in 1924. But due to a repressive team coach, Wolffe (Christopher Eccleston), who won’t let the team practice on the three-week boat ride to Paris, they lose at the Olympics. Defeated, Trudy returns to her hometown of New York to work in the butcher shop with her father, Henry (Kim Bodnia). Although, after her sister, Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is going to get married, Trudy is given another chance to prove herself, this time by swimming across the English Channel. But when she gets to Paris, she once again has Wolffe as her trainer. She fails on her attempt to swim the Channel, but then with the arrival of her sister, and her father, and the eccentric swimmer Bill (Stephen Graham), she attempts again. And with her mother, Gertrude (Jeanette Hain), listening to her progress over in the States, Trudy swims with genuine support, but she may be claimed by the dangerous waters.

The setup for the film is compelling, as Gertrude is listening to a tragedy that occurred in the New York harbor where many women died as they were stranded in a burning ship and couldn’t swim ashore. At that moment, Gertrude proclaims that she wants her girls to learn to swim, even though the strict German father Henry says that it is not allowed. Trudy eventually learns to swim around the harbor, mostly because she and her sister can get free hot dogs. When Trudy joins a swim club, she is kind of terrible. But it leads to an enjoyable sports movie cliche of her training at the swimming pool and getting better. When she doesn’t come in last, she doesn’t have to light the boiler with coal which is seen as a prize. The relationship between Trudy and Meg is interesting, as Meg starts off as the better athlete, but slowly Trudy passes her. Although Meg still loves her sister. When Trudy is doing her swim across the Channel and stalls out, Meg jumps into the water beside her saying her sister, “Hates to come in second place”. Meg can’t make it the whole swim, but she is in the water long enough beside Trudy to inspire her.

Ridley is great as Trudy as she is always great at playing determined. There is a lot of moments when she stares off into the distance with a steely gaze, but it still works. Even in a rather cliched bit when she is at the dinner table and casually proclaims that she is going to go on with swimming even without the approval of her father is solid. The ridiculous ways that Wolffe tries to hold her back are infuriating to see. When the team goes over to Paris for the Olympics, he doesn’t allow them to train on the deck with the men, so they completely bomb. Later when Trudy is training to swim across the English Channel, Wolffe won’t let her eat proper food, just giving her some fruit to maintain her female figure. So, she berates him with some help and she is able to eat. Eccleston plays the trainer as a perfect jerk, at one point even seemingly deliberately sabotaging her swim.

The other side of the coin is Graham as Billy, a free spirit crazy swimmer who does stunt performances for money, but he actually accomplished the Channel swim, and he believes in her. Bodnia as Gert’s father thinks his daughters engaging in swimming is against societal code, but he loosens up and becomes a major supporter. As the mother, Hain initiates the girls learning swimming and even when the father is disapproving of their activities, she keeps pressing the girls on. When he refuses to pay two dollars a week for the girls to train, she sells knitting to bring in money. In the finale, when Trudy is doing the channel swim, she is listening in the US and barges her way into a radio station and forces the broadcasters to give her updates.

Young Woman and the Sea leads to a spectacular finale where Trudy makes her determined swim, having to roll through a parade of jellyfish and get lost in the dark. The way the people at the edge of England come together to guide her in is rather stirring. This movie may be a bit standard when it comes to sports and historical movie clichés, but it is effective. The setbacks are suitably frustrating so it makes the viewer cheer more for the big wins, especially when Trudy finally leaves her mark.