with Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Rhys Ifans.

If you know anything about Diana Nyad, there is no suspense about how her quest to swim from Cuba to Florida turns out. That event took place almost ten years ago. The movie documents– no — narrates — in sequential order with flashbacks to her childhood and its traumas–the many attempts she made to reach her goal. Having stopped swimming 30 years prior to her 60th birthday, she wakes up one day and decides to finish the task she set for herself when she was 28,and got only so far, having been attacked by sharks, stung by jellyfish, and turned around by surly weather.

The movie not only shows dramatic if repetitive footage of how she trained and raised money and gathered an essential team to get her to her destination. It proves how essential friendship is for women as they age, grow old, and wonder what they’ve made of their lives.

Bonnie Stoll is Diana’s best friend, and as played by Jodie Foster, a terrific foil. She stands up to the domineering, egotistical demands of her friend. But as her coach, she is the wind in her sails.

Another important member of the team is the navigator. You need to know which way the wind is blowing, the currents, and the weather, to be sure you will not get stuck. Rhys Ifans plays the part of John Bartlett, as sure of himself as Diana is of herself. The two come to loggerheads at first, but after four tries, they finally see eye to eye.

The editing, especially at the beginning of the tale, is excellent, folding in episodes from Nyad’s childhood.

The underwater filming of shark avoidance is genuinely thrilling. How fortunate that she did not have to use a shark cage, but a technology advance that repels the hunters with an electronic charge. But I found the difficult photography of night scenes on the open ocean, lit by red lights, confusing.

Bening is convincing as this dynamo whose dogged determination makes her achieve her mission. The filmmakers put the over 60 women at the center of their frame to tell a compelling tale. In the end, the great swim that Nyad achieves is just part of her quest to determine who she really is, she with a name out of Greek mythology that means water nymph.

I can’t help but wonder why the documentary filmmakers who made the brilliant movie, Free Solo, chose to cast actors in the parts of the real figures. I wonder why so many of our new dramatic movies, like Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and others, are not documentary series. Is it necessary to cast A list actors to bring in a large audience?

A documentary about Nyad’s swim was made soon after she did it, The Other Shore, directed by Timothy Wheeler, in 2013. I was curious how it differed from this movie, so made an effort to watch it. My review is now posted.