Directed by Joachim Rønning, Young Woman and the Sea, is a true story about American competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, played by Daisy Ridley, who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel – a distance of 21 miles between Great Britain & France. Also starring in the film are Christopher Eccleston, Stephen Graham, and Kim Bodnia.

What really intrigued me in watching this was the film being labeled as a limited film. It sounded strange for a Disney movie with Daisy Ridley to only be limited. I figured it might have to do with budget constraints, but as it turned out, Disney had confidence after it performed well with test screenings. The film is slated to come out this Friday, March 31. I was fortunate enough catch an early screening on the Monday prior where a percentage of each ticket sold went to support the non-profit USA Swimming. As a swimmer, I can get behind that. Since I had the day off, I took the chance to go see it as soon as possible.

Even though the filmmaker, Joachim Rønning, is set to direct the upcoming Tron: Ares, his past filmography made me nervous even with this film. Prior, he worked on 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with his then-director duo companion, Espen Sandberg. I strongly disliked that film and try to ignore it as best as I can. Aside from Young Woman and the Sea getting a limited release, seeing that Daisy Ridley in the lead role also intrigued me. Her work outside of Star Wars has been fascinating to see to say the least with Sometimes I Think About Dying being her strongest work. I knew Ridley would crush it, but I was really interested to see what Rønning would do. I can confidently say that I have more trust in him now with the next Tron film.

Not that either Tron nor this film will have that much in common, yet it’s really the tone that Rønning presents through the time period, as well as through the talent. Based on what Rønning has accomplished here, I think he can do the same with just about anything else and still have it translate really well. Rønning does a fine job with establishing the integral characters. Sure, there is Daisy Ridley as Gertrude, or Trudy as everyone else calls her, but the supporting cast have an important place in this story. There’s a specific charm with this that true story can do too much, yet here there is a fine balance within the charm. It offers humor, inspiration, and connection to the story and its characters. While I didn’t find it as funny as the people in front me who viewed it more as a comedy, I still connected to it and found the tone necessary.

It feels rare to have a true story with this kind of formula, especially coming from Disney. I am thrilled to see that Disney found this one necessary to put in theaters, and if it’s successful enough, continue putting more biopics in theaters. Biopics are hit or miss. An easy comparison to this one as it came out not that long ago is The Boys in the Boat, a film I strongly disliked. That film was all over the place and changed its tone every few minutes, yet there were still people in my theater who liked it. I don’t mind an inspirational, true story film if its cohesive. When I saw this being compared with the other, that did also make me a bit nervous. The end product has a bit of the same tone, but it is so much more cohesive with established characters that you can’t help but to love.

Daisy Ridley is exceptional in the lead role. While I haven’t been a competitive swimmer, I have enough experience between swimming and working for a swimming company to understand how competitive swimmers function. You get to see this natural arc of Ridley’s character getting better and better. Her character has its setbacks, yet she keeps overcoming them. It’s a relatable theme to many, but it strongly connects with me as someone who has an end goal in sight with many setbacks. In that respect, not only did I find it easy to connect with the character, but I think every viewer of the film will find a little bit of themselves in Trudy.

Aside from Ridley’s amazing performance as Trudy, you also have Christopher Eccleston as her trainer, Stephen Graham who ends up becoming her second trainer, and Kim Bodnia as her father. These three probably stand out to me as much as they do, because Rønning uses their strengths from before and utilizes them to his advantage. I am always happy to see Eccleston have a resurgence in his career. I find him to be a very underrated Doctor in the Doctor Who series. As for Stephen Graham, he brings a lot of the lightheartedness to the film. Finally, as soon as I heard Bodnia’s laugh, I immediately recognized him from Killing Eve, which gives him the opportunity to switch between different modes of playing Trudy’s father.

While it’s great to see the supporting cast be used respectfully here, the script can often times fall into cliches and even some editing issues that underutilize their importance to the film. The cliches are not as bad as one may think, yet they can make things predictable to say the least. As soon as I saw an obstacle coming, I knew the end result, and I was right in the end. It does get a bit tedious. The pacing also doesn’t give much for the other characters to do. For a 2-hour movie, there were plenty of times where they could even out the pacing for a better viewing experience.

Overall, Young Woman and the Sea really surprised me. It’s effective from its story to its characters. Even with some pacing issues and cliches we have seen done plenty of times before, there is more than enough charm to enjoy this one. I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I miss Disney’s true story movies.

VERDICT: Pretty Good