A Jovem e o Mar

Think of a list of movies coming out nowadays that are perfectly family friendly, make a strong point, have almost universal emotional appeal, and are actually good. It's not a long list, but this movie is surely on it.

The story may seem formulaic at first, but that formula works wonders for a reason. The heart of this movie bleeds through its rich emotion and clever direction. The ensemble cast provide a strong blend of timely humor, intense rigidity, and admirable courage.

Chiefly, Daisy Ridley's performance is nothing short of masterful.

This movie might have suffered from a bad marketing strategy as I fear not many will see it for lack of knowledge of its existence. What a shame.

This movie is everything you want in a movie. Moving, engaging, well paced, funny, meaningful, important, and impactful. What a great, great movie.

This movie was unbelievably good and I cried through the entire last 30 min . The story is one of perseverance and guts , sacrifice and valor and of the power of allowing yourself to be different and fight .

First of all I cannot believe I had never heard this story before - I am a HUGE sports fan and this has slipped through the cracks . The story sticks very closely to truth with some artistic liberties taken but for the most part - it remains true to the original . The message and feeling and moral is true and the feeling is true . It is so easy to forget how much sacrifice and drive and challenging of society went into the opportunities that we as women and girls have today in sports because of women like this and she was able to do it because of the strong women around her - this movie made me thankful and humble .

The casting was awesome and so was the character development . Loved the whole family and you hated the "villains " the chemistry between sisters and that bond really made the movie and Ridley was great . Both "Eppy" and Trudy's mom were hard core women and then were courageous and authentic .

The best scene in the movie involves Meg helping Trudy and realizing not every dream is the same and you can live yours and accept life happily and also support those around you .

My only complaint comes in that it felt a bit ... juvenile ? Low production quality ? Not the best script writing / dialogue specifically ? I am not sure but I loved it regardless and will watch it again and again.

Swim towards the light and remember " there's no place like sports "

Young Woman and the Sea is a traditional Hollywood biopic that is in part a sporting drama, but also a survival story and all these elements combine well to inspire.

Whilst I am frustrated that so much dramatic licence is taken during some of the key moments, the story and message is good. Importantly, if it prompts people to do their own research into facts about the people and events portrayed, that's a positive outcome. Those who take Hollywood movies at face value and believe everything they see deserve to spend their life being misled.

Some people might argue it lays the theme of female empowerment on too thick (and maybe they are right), but that's certainly not a negative for me. I am a father of a daughter who swims in a class full of competitive older boys and each one of them try their best to make sure they never finish behind her. Sometimes she beats them, most times they win and it can be disheartening for her. This is exactly the type of film she needed to see to remind her that she's not inferior and to persevere. In all facets of life.

It also inspired me... to never swim long distances in the sea again! The filmmakers do a brilliant job capturing how treacherous a challenge it is. (In my young backpacking days I almost died swimming from a coral reef in Malaysia back to an island) The experience of swimming in open water is as terrifying as the film portrays and people who have completed immense challenges like the Channel swim deserve to be immortalised on screen. The cinematography, editing and art direction is all superb.

Daisy Ridley leads it with a strong central performance and is supported well by other cast members, particularly Stephen Graham, who entertains in virtually every scene.

Ridley does a phenomenal job representing Trudy Ederly, a passionate young woman determined to swim, regardless of what the world (mostly men) say. Her determination and resilience is well played throughout the story, sometimes in tearjerking scenes of struggle, other times in quiet moments of stubbornness and strength. Props to the cast for a stout performance all around.

That being said, I couldn't love this movie and felt repeatedly taken out of the moment by the relentless preachy nature of the writing and the stereotypical male characters. While the key component of this story is a woman overcoming physical and cultural obstacles to perform incredible feats of athleticism, the male characters are often so exaggerated in their misogyny and incredulity that I often felt I couldn't relate to any of the males. They were either so unbelievably simple and played up for comic effect (the suitors the father brings the girls), unjustifiably rude, even given the cultural norms of the time, bombastically obstinate (the father) or they were outright malicious. This treads far beyond the facts of the true story of Trudy, making grand presumptions about how hated she was by the men of her time.

Don't get me wrong, she was dealing with sexism and cultural inequality, and the film NEEDED that to cut through to give power to the character arc of Trudy, which I understood. But the authenticity and nuance which shines through in Ridley's performance is often overshadowed by single-dimensional, poorly written male characters with little or no redeeming quality.

I loved watching her journey and I'd watch it again, but hated how the males were misrepresented and maligned consistently throughout the film.

I left the theater thinking Young Woman and the Sea will win best picture. Either the story of Gertrude Ederle is just that good, or the director has created a masterpiece, lightning in the bottle, whatever you want to call it. Daisy Ridley brings us a brave, if not slightly insane, young woman who through circumstance, bad luck, and bad people, managed to persevere. In a way, it was like the movie Gravity, but in 1926 and out at sea; and Gertrude also had to deal with the sexism of the time. A line out of the movie, "I'm saving up for a telephone." When asked why, he answered, "I don't know. I just want one." So old-timey yet very much today. Everything this movie did, worked.