I had been torn over whether to see “Nyad,” the acclaimed 2023 biopic about distance swimmer Diane Nyad’s quest to complete the first “unassisted swim” from Cuba to Florida. On the pro- side was that the two stars, Annette Bening and Jodie Foster are among my favorite actresses in Hollywood. On the anti- side is my long-time problems with Nyad herself, so I thought the movie might drive me crazy. I also suspected that the critical raves were based more on the progressive movie reviewer mob’s determination to extol a movie about a lesbian couple than the actual quality of the film.

It is an ethics movie, however, so last night I finally viewed it on Netflix. As I expected, both Bening and Foster are excellent, but Bening more than Foster: Jodie plays Nyad’s galpal pretty much like she’s Jodie Foster. Hardly a stretch. Bening, in contrast, is doing one of those against-type portrayals requiring a dramatic physical transformation that is always irresistible to critics and Oscar voters, like Robert DeNiro playing Jake Lamotta, or Chalize Theron playing serial killer Aileen Woronos.

It’s a stunt and not a completely successful one: the real Nyad was and is a beefy mesomorphic athlete, and Bening, despite filling out her usual long and lean frame a bit, doesn’t look like either a swimmer or an athlete. She is ultimately convincing, however, nonetheless. She also plays Nyad as a self-obsessed, narcissistic jerk, which she is.

We are still supposed to admire Nyad as a heroic figure, despite the fact that she abuses Foster’s character who is as loyal and loving as cocker spaniel, and everyone else Nyad encounters. The movie seems to be saying that the ends justifies the means when you have a grand mission.

But what a stupid, pointless mission it is! Nyad is dedicated to becoming the first woman to swim “unassisted” from Cuba to Florida, having already received accolades and publicity for other, less extreme feats of long-distance swimming. Big whoop. Will this “achievement” help another human being? Advance civilization? Save a life? Add anything of value to society or the culture? No, all that succeeding in this quest will do is make Nyad more famous, get her speaking gigs and endorsements, sell her books, and get a movie made about her. Making that swim is exactly like the “achievement” of climbing to the top of Mt. Everest, or getting into the Guinness Book of Records by eating a Ford. Kim Kardashian has contributed more to the world than Diana Nyad. Kamala Harris. Pee Wee Herman. Me.

In order to make this completely useless swim, Nyad raised and spends more than a million dollars, all of which could have been used to send dying children to Disney World, or something. She uses dozens of people to assist in helping her realize her “dream,” and, as Foster’s character and others point out, seldom expresses any appreciation or gratitude.

When she finally, after four unsuccessful attempts, completes the swim, surviving jellyfish, sharks, hallucinations and exhaustion, we are supposed to be overcome with admiration. Why? What good did she do for anyone but herself?

Then there are the inconvenient details that the filmmakers, documentations in their first dramatic feature, choose to omit or gloss over. The film shows Nyad with only one boat tracking her; there were several vessels and extensive crews. The movie shows her completing a swim of the English Channel, which she never did. More significantly, Nyad’s crossing from Cuba to Florida lost its formal recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records after a controversy over whether the swim was what Nyad claimed it to be.

Her attempts to get official recognition of her feat in 2013 led to questions about the equipment she used, how much her crews assisted her in the water, and why her speed doubled in some portions of the swim. In 2018, Nyad petitioned the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA!) for official recognition, but failed.

It didn’t help that Nyad has lied about her swimming record in the past. She claimed to have placed sixth at the 1968 Olympic trials, which she never attended. She stated in her 2015 memoir “Find a Way,” on which “Nyad” was based, that she was the first person to swim around Manhattan. Six swimmers had done it before her.

Marathon swimmer and journalist Elaine K. Howley wrote, “Nyad lovers always throw back at us that we’re anti-female, anti-gay, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I have found marathon swimming to be incredibly LGBTQ+ friendly and welcoming to older women. That is all a straw man. Just because somebody is part of a marginalized group doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions when they make extraordinary claims.”

Following the premiere of “Nyad” at the Telluride Film Festival, WOWSA again rejected the validity of Nyad’s 2013 Cuba to Florida swim based on nine hours that went undocumented in designated observer logs during the course of the swim, conflicting accounts from crew members,and GPS data showing her reaching swimming speeds of up to 4.0 miles per hour. (Michael Phelps’s 2002 world-record Olympic 400-meter swim was about 3.7 miles per hour, in a pool, with no waves. And he wasn’t 64 years old). After this final ruling got her swim dinged by the Guinness Book of Records, Nyad said, “Maybe I had too much hubris, like, ‘I don’t need to prove this to anybody.’ That’s my bad.”

Hubris she’s got. Ethics? Not in my book.