YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA

Here's the good news up front: this is one of the best movies in a long time, and there's very little standing between your family and it. It avoids the usual pitfalls — no ultra-violence, no hyper-sexuality, no wall of foul language. It just tells a great, great story exceptionally well.

The only real caution is for younger children. Trudy Ederle's attempt on the English Channel means intense jeopardy — storms, currents, a swarm of jellyfish, a shark — and the film also depicts the breaking down of the stereotypes and paternalism of the 1920s, which younger viewers may need help understanding.

If you loved The Boys in the Boat, you'll find this one similar — and, in our judgment, even better. Gather the family and go.

Brooklyn, the 1920s. Trudy Ederle is a young girl in a family of German immigrants when a steamboat in New York Harbor catches fire and sinks, taking 847 lives — many of them drowned. Shaken by the tragedy, Trudy tells her mother she wants to learn to swim.

But girls don't swim. Girls aren't supposed to be athletes — swimming is even thought bad for their health. Trudy persists anyway. What begins with a rope tied around her waist at Coney Island grows into something no woman had ever dared: an attempt to cross the 21 brutal miles of the English Channel.

Four stars, and they're earned. This film is so well constructed that it defines what a movie should be. It's extremely well plotted, superbly directed, and beautifully acted — and it surprises you with a full orchestra producing a rich musical score where a smaller film would have settled for less.

What makes it work is restraint. The filmmakers refuse the easy hooks — no gratuitous violence, no sexual content, no cascade of profanity — trusting the story itself to carry the weight. And it does. Comparisons to The Boys in the Boat are fair, but this one clears that bar. When a true underdog story is told with this much craft and conviction, it doesn't need embellishment. It just needs to be told well, and it is.

This is a rare thing: a mainstream studio film with a very strong moral worldview and genuine Christian texture running through it. There are positive references to prayer, to church, and to nuns serving as chaperones. And the virtues the story celebrates are the ones Scripture celebrates — courage, forgiveness, loyalty, and fortitude.

Underneath the swimming is a quiet theology. The film speaks of the Hand of God, and of the knowledge that each man and woman is made in the image of God. That conviction is what powers Trudy's story: a girl told she doesn't count, insisting — and proving — that she does.

The film also portrays the breaking down of 1920s stereotyping and paternalism. It handles this without becoming preachy or ideological; the source calls the refutations historically accurate and grounded rather than modern grandstanding. Trudy's own father has to get past his paternalism, and an Olympic official has to get past his prejudice against women swimmers — and the story lets both men change.

At its heart this is a film about a longing to be seen and valued for who you truly are — a longing Scripture answers at the root. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

Every so often a movie reminds you how good a true story, well told, can be. This is one of them — beautifully made, morally rich, and safe enough for nearly the whole family to enjoy together, with just a little care for the youngest over the intense swimming scenes. Our answer is the same one we started with: worth the trip. Gather everyone and go.