Daisy Ridley dives headfirst into true swimming drama Young Woman and the Sea (2024)

Young Woman and the Sea is as much about swimming as it is about defiance.

Daisy Ridley takes on the role of real-life Olympic swimmer Gertrude 'Trudy' Ederle, who in 1926 became the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel, easily beating the record time achieved by the men who did it before her.

Knowing Trudy will make history by the end of the movie doesn't take the excitement out of it, as this true story offers a touching version of the underdog formula and a charming heroine to root for from beginning to end.

It's not the most original sports movie ever made, but the goal here is to put Trudy Ederle in her rightful place in history, and that it definitely does.

Based on Glenn Stout's 2009 book of the same name, the movie follows the story of the record-breaking swimmer from her childhood as a sickly kid in an immigrant German family in New York to her growing obsession with fighting the waves in the open sea.

Despite the patriarchal limitations of the time, Trudy and her sister Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) joined the Women's Swimming Association (WSA), led by Charlotte Epstein (Fleabag's Sian Clifford), and learned to swim professionally.

Trudy went on to dominate every female swimming competition in the country and became an Olympic athlete in 1924.

However, her biggest challenge, the one she dreamed of for years, was to swim the English Channel — from France to England's shores. It took her 14 hours and 34 minutes to complete the journey, facing ominous storms and plenty of jellyfish.

As information about Ederle is scarce, Young Woman and the Sea takes some creative licence, as well as tweaking some known facts in order to compress the story and enhance the drama — Ederle did win medals, so her trip to the Olympic Games wasn't a total disaster, there was actually a full year between her first and second attempt at swimming the channel, and a certain controversial poisoning in the water never actually happened.

Jeff Nathanson's script marries reality and fiction in quite an effective way, putting special focus on family relations and the much-needed support system that allows extraordinary women to find their path.

Meanwhile, director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Kon-Tiki) finds the visual strength of the movie in the dynamic open-water scenes, which make Daisy Ridley's performance all the more impressive.

The London-born actor is the heart of the movie, her months-long training to prepare for this role brilliantly evident in every stroke of her arm in the water. Her commitment is admirable, and the movie is all the better for it.

After being propelled to fame thanks to the Star Wars franchise back in 2015, and as she prepares to reprise her role as Rey in a new movie, Ridley is delivering some excellent performances (see her work in the independent gem Sometimes I Think About Dying) while exploring a more active role behind the cameras. She is an executive producer in Young Woman and the Sea, and is continuing her producing ventures with Magpie, which will be released this year.

As Trudy Ederle, the actor captures a sense of passion and unbreakable determination, which quickly turns her into a role model for young girls who want to swim or otherwise follow a different path than the one laid down for them by early-20th-century society.

Some of the movie's key scenes (like a scary jellyfish encounter and a bit of sisterly motivation during a low-spirited moment) would have been more impactful if we hadn't seen similar counterparts in Netflix's Oscar-nominated movie Nyad. Both titles can totally coexist, though, as they tell incredible true-story tales of female swimmers separated by almost a century and who achieve very different feats.

What makes Young Woman and the Sea unique, besides Trudy's singular story, is Ridley's relentless joy — whether she's facing the elements in the open sea or singing 'Ain't We Got Fun' for the millionth time, there is always a smile on her face.

Honing the classic sports-film formula, the movie is a delightful dive into a story that needed to be told, and lifted up.