Nyad review – Annette Bening and Jodie Foster delight in marathon swimming biopic

This may be the first drama feature from documentary-directing duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo), but the themes – human endurance, daunting physical challenges, needlessly reckless flirtations with death – provide a link to their previous work. The film tells the real-life story of Diana Nyad (a staunch performance from Annette Bening), a retired endurance swimmer who decided, aged 60, to get back in the water and attempt, once again, the gruelling 110-mile crossing from Cuba to Florida.

It’s a swim that takes more than two solid days, through waters populated by sharks and poisonous jellyfish. It defeated her once, at the prime of her fitness. But Diana is ferociously single-minded, making her a formidable athlete but an absolute nightmare at parties. Her best friend and trainer, Bonnie (Jodie Foster), repeatedly has to remind Diana that there are other possible conversational subjects apart from the remarkable achievements of Diana Nyad. And it’s this – the wry humour provided by the long-suffering Bonnie; the lovely lived-in quality of the friendship – rather than the lengthy swimming sequences and a few slightly unwieldy flashbacks that gives the film its crowd-pleasing appeal.

• In selected cinemas and on Netflix