After distance swimmer Trudy Ederle swam the English Channel in 1926, she had the biggest parade for an athlete in New York City — ever. As the first woman to swim the channel, she effectively paved the way for the future of women’s sports. So why isn’t she more of a household name? The new biopic “Young Woman and the Sea” seeks to change that, re-establishing Ederle as a world-changing icon.
This rousing sports biopic is a throwback to the kinds of inspiring underdog stories we love, like “Rudy” but with a girl-power feminist bent and a woman-against-nature theme. Daisy Ridley plays the sunnily determined Trudy, and the film is filled with a supporting cast of charming characters who offer pops of humor and heart. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, it’s a triumphant, emotional sports movie akin to his “Remember the Titans” and “Glory Road.
” Norwegian director Joachim Rønning tackles Trudy’s life story with a script by Jeff Nathanson, adapted from the 2009 account “Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World” by Glenn Stout. (Rønning and co-director Espen Sandberg also made the oceanic adventure film “Kon-Tiki,” which could have been titled “Young Men and the Sea.”) These filmmakers clearly have a knack for capturing nautical adventure and the delusional yet undeniably human desire to conquer the seas.
But plunge below the surface, and there’s so much more to this story than just that of .
