On May 29, Annette Bening turns 66. At one time, this would mean curtains for an actress’s career. But there’s been a concerted shift in the film industry since 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh was named Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, AARP Movies for Grownups, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild last year.
This year, those same organizations nominated Bening for the sports biopic Nyad (2023) as well as her 61-year-old co-star Jodie Foster. In fact, the two received the Best Screen Couple prize from the Women Film Critics Circle. Although Diana Nyad (Bening) and Bonnie Stoll (Foster) shared a romantic past, the film begins during their post-tryst friendship.
Based on Nyad’s memoir “Find a Way” (2015), the plot kicks in when curmudgeonly Diana begrudgingly marks her 60th birthday. Determined not to let age define her, she decides to re-attempt the 110-mile nonstop swim from Cuba to Florida, a feat she unsuccessfully tried 30 years earlier. Bonnie reluctantly agrees to train her, knowing the odds are against them.
Not only will Diana need to get her past-prime body into top shape, she has to find innovative ways to ward off sharks and jellyfish; entice financial sponsorships; and ensure observer logs are taken (more on this later). If that’s not overwhelming enough, the ambitious athlete must emotionally conquer memories of her swimming coach Jack Nelson (Eric T. Miller) sexually abusing her 14-year-old self (Anna Harriette Pittman).
When grown Diana revisits her old televised interviews, the movie’s directors (documentarians Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin) rely on archival footage. Unfortunately, the juxtaposition between the real Nyad and the fictional one is jarring and feels like the documentary filmmakers aren’t wholeheartedly embracing the narrative format. Because they’re more accustomed to working with non-actors, one wonders if they were hands-off with Bening and Foster since the former tries too hard to be gruff while the latter overcompensates with over-the-top pluck.
Nevertheless, their Oscar-bait performances reeled in nominations over Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, both of whom offered layered portrayals in the nuanced dramedy May December (2023). But then the Academy doesn’t have a great track record for appreciating subtlety.
However, Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik did nab a nomination for Best Original Screenplay despite being inspired by the tabloid news story of Mary Kay Letourneau. Back in the 1990s, the 34-year-old school teacher (who was married with children) made headlines when she took advantage of her 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau.
By the time he was 14, she was pregnant with their first daughter. While serving a sentence for two counts of second-degree rape of a child, Letourneau became pregnant with their second daughter. Once she was released from prison and her first marriage, she and Fualaau were wed when she was 43 and he was 21.
While this salacious tale lends itself to physical action, seasoned director Todd Haynes instead focuses on the internal intricacies of his fictional characters who, thankfully, are of legal age when the film takes place. The story starts as 36-year-old Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) and his 59-year-old wife Gracie Atherton-Yoo (played by a 60-something Moore) prepare for the high school graduation of their teenaged twins (Gabriel Chung and Elizabeth Yu).
Also at this time, well-known actress Elizabeth Berry (Portman) agrees to play Gracie in an indie movie about the decades-old sex scandal. To research her role, Elizabeth befriends the couple. As the women interact with one another, it’s difficult to determine who is in control because both use indirect tactics to achieve their goals. Elizabeth’s arrival also sparks Joe’s realization of his lost youth since she and he are around the same age as Gracie when he was first seduced.
For better or worse, Nyad and May December present antiheroines who refuse to abide by the restrictions of age. Julia Cox’s screenplay offers a positive bent on this theme, especially when Nyad hits the shore and triumphantly declares, “You’re never too old to chase your dreams.”
Yet Cox’s feel-good script doesn’t disclose one crucial fact: due to a 9-hour gap in observations, the Guinness World Records and World Open Water Swimming Association were unable to certify Nyad’s supposed victory. Had the formulaic biopic addressed this, it could have been much more interesting. But since documentary filmmakers are seldom questioned for cherrypicking information, it appears the desire to create a crowd-cheering climax proved too tempting.
In other words, while May December explores manipulating women on screen, Nyad reflects manipulators behind the camera.
Both movies can be streamed on Netflix.