Nyad, Young Woman and the Sea, and Vindication Swim.  All biopics of long-distance swimmers who made history.  Based on the rule of three, we officially have a trend.  With 2023’s Nyad, the story of determined Diana Nyad’s conquering of the treacherous waters between Cuba and Florida was brought to brilliant life by star Annette Bening and Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.  And it has been a handful of weeks since Young Woman and the Sea found Daisy Ridley telling the true story of Trudy Ederle overcoming a childhood illness to become the first American woman to cross the English Channel. 

That superb Walt Disney Studios film, directed by Joachim Rønning, hasn’t made the kind of waves at the box office that it should have (though I imagine once it premieres on Disney+ and other streaming services, it will take off). Still, it stands a better chance than Vindication Swim, a UK production that struggles to keep its head above water.  Attempting to capture the same Ederle spirit by recounting the story of Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to defeat the English Channel in 1927, despite all obvious good intentions, writer/director Elliot Hasler has neither the budget nor the style to compete.

Hasler’s film depicts Gleitze’s (Kirsten Callaghan) upstream battle against not only the chilly depths of the Channel but also the restrictive constraints of a patriarchal society that believes young women should work until they find a husband and then be happy with raising their family.  Gleitze, the daughter of German immigrants, wasn’t content to accept that dictated path and sought a more profound calling to fulfill her dreams.  The successful completion of her swim (her eighth attempt) should have been a triumphant moment for her.

The glory was short-lived, however. A rival swimmer, Edith Gade (Victoria Summer, Saving Mr. Banks), also claimed to have made the swim in a record amount of time.  The more glamorous Gade was willing to play the social game Gleitze wasn’t and enjoyed her time in the spotlight until doubt was cast on the validity of her swim.  Gade’s fall from grace took Gleitze down with her, entangling the swimmer in a fierce battle to preserve her record and legacy.  The titular vindication swim was a way for Gleitze to reaffirm to all that she represented an athleticism few could master…but with the entire country watching, could she repeat a feat that had eluded her multiple times before?

On paper, this is a compelling premise for a rousing film, but surfacing so close on the heels of the critically acclaimed Nyad and Disney’s lushly produced Young Woman and the Sea makes Vindication Swim feel like a budget-conscious also-ran.  Completed two years ago, I can’t imagine why the release is happening now when comparisons were bound to be heavily scrutinized.  Hasler’s film confirms its limited resources in nearly every frame.  From the chintzy sets to the lackluster visual effects and poor dubbing, it consistently fails to transport the audience to the era or the perilous waters our heroine is navigating.

The performances, too, are a mixed bag.  Callaghan (who looks remarkably like the real Mercedes) gives a spirited effort, and her earnestness is commendable, but the script fails her throughout.  Perhaps that’s why she spends most of the film looking like she’s doing long division in her head while silently saying the alphabet backward.  As her testy coach, Harold Best, esteemed actor John Locke (Darkest Hour) tends to deliver his lines without any punctuation as if they all lead into a song. The script is constructed with such saccharine statements that I frequently thought the actors were about to break into a show tune, and Callaghan does lend her vocals to the closing credits song.

The decision to shoot scenes on land in black and white and those at sea in color could have been an artistic masterstroke, but it feels disjointed when the sequences drained of color look artificial.  Hastily aged to give a feel of historical context, these monochrome passages also look sharper than their color counterparts, making them dull by comparison.  I couldn’t get Madonna’s Vogue video out of my head watching it, especially when the prospect of an elegant life impedes Gleitze’s hopes of being taken seriously.

In the end, Gleitze’s story was exactly the movie I feared Young Woman and the Sea would be: a well-meaning biopic marred by a tentativeness that betrays the confidence shown by its subject.  It also features several glaring errors in the rules of competitive swimming, violations that are present for the filmmakers to get a more dramatic shot.  It doesn’t entirely stink or sink, but watching Vindication Swim feels like wading in a shallow tide pool – safe, predictable, and lacking depth.  For a film about a woman who broke barriers, it’s a washout.