TMS Movie Review: Young Woman and the Sea

(Walt Disney Pictures)

Of the younger actors to debut with the Star Wars sequels (2015-19), female lead Daisy Ridley appears to be the one who took the farthest backseat after the trilogy’s underwhelming conclusion five years ago. Despite co-starring in Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Ridley’s only noteworthy role since J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker (2019) was Doug Liman’s uneventful bomb Chaos Walking (2021). But now, following Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) and Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter (2023), the starlet is back in the public eye with more modest, smaller budget pictures. This month, the spunky brunette leads Joachim Rønning’s athletic biopic Young Woman and the Sea.

Much like Alejandro Monteverde’s Cabrini this past spring, Young Woman and the Sea deals with European immigrants settling into early 20th century New York City. Only this time it’s about a young German-American woman named Trudy Ederle (Ridley) who takes on the challenge to be the best professional female swimmer after beating the measles as a child. Though her family and peers constantly remind her the risks of swimming as a former measles victim, as well as the lack of support from the athletics community as a woman; Trudy wins a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics and has plans to be the first woman to swim The English Channel.

(Walt Disney Pictures)

Kim Dodnia and Jeanette Hain play Trudy’s traditional parents who are concerned for her, Tilda Cobham-Hervey co-stars as the swimmer’s confidant and older sister, and Christopher Eccleston and Sian Clifford appear as Trudy’s coaches. Young Woman and the Sea’s script is adapted by Jeff Nathanson from Glenn Stout’s 2009 biography of the same name on Ederle, and directed by Norwegian moviemaker Rønning; who seems to currently be one of Disney’s go-to men for live-action features since Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), Young Woman, and Tron: Ares planned for next year. His current film reminded me of the type of quaint, mid-budget family dramas I remember from my youth, like Steve Miner’s Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken (1991) and Randall Wallace’s Secretariat (2010). There isn’t a ton of originality going on here story wise.

We know Trudy will achieve her goals and make history, her family problems will be resolved by the end, there are the usual talking points on immigration and Suffragette era women’s rights, and there’s barely an acknowledgment on Trudy slowly going deaf as a latent measles side effect from swimming. But it’s delivered well enough to entertain general audiences, along with some pretty camerawork from Oscar Faura. Ridley taps into her full potential and shows she’s best suited for these kinds of sporty characters, while the rest of the cast is solid. Young Woman and the Sea is the typical feel-good, inspiring tale that you queue in for on a leisurely day off.