The film stars Ridley as Trudy Ederle, the accomplished swimmer who overcame adversity in the early 1900s to become the first woman to complete a 21-mile swim across the English Channel from France to England. Tilda Cobham-Hervey (“Hotel Mumbai”), Stephen Graham (“The Irishman”), Kim Bodnia (“The Bridge”), Christopher Eccleston (“Doctor Who”), and Glenn Fleshler (“Barry”) also star. The film was originally set up at Paramount before Disney scooped up the rights in 2020.

Critics and audiences are very much on this one’s side. “Young Woman and the Sea” holds an 84% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go with a near-perfect 98% audience score. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer said it was the highest testing film of his impressive career at CinemaCon earlier this year, which is no small thing. (You can listen to our own interview with Bruckheimer in the player at the bottom of this article.) So while the theatrical audience is relatively small thus far, those who have seen it seem to love it. It’s a crowd-pleaser.

Might it have fared well if Disney pushed it more aggressively, rather than giving it a token awards-qualifying release? It’s difficult to say. Original dramas without a genre hook have struggled during the pandemic era, with movies like director Sean Durkin’s wrestling drama “The Iron Claw” ($45 million worldwide) and A24’s Oscar-nominated “Past Lives” ($42 million worldwide) serving as relative exceptions. Whatever the case, it seems audiences will have be largely left to discover this one on streaming later this year.

“Young Woman and the Sea” is in theaters now.