Let’s be fair, there isn’t a great movie about rowing (Marriage Story is a terrific film about rowing but that’s a whole other thing). While its cinematic zenith might have come in David Fincher’s The Social Network, the sport has yet to spawn its defining masterpiece, a Raging Bull on water or a Hoop Dreams with oars. Frankly, The Boys in the Boat isn’t it. Based on Daniel James Brown’s popular 2013 book, George Clooney’s ninth film as a director turns the story of a 1930s underdog collegiate rowing team into a predictable, anodyne but likeable and well-meaning retread of every cliché in the Sports Movie playbook.
Bookended by a saccharine Saving Private Ryan-esque framing device that sees composer Alexandre Desplat at his most twee, the action proper takes place in Seattle, Washington in 1936. Joe Rantz (Callum Turner, low-key but engaging) is a dedicated but poverty-stricken student at the University of Washington who discovers the only way he can earn money and put a roof over his head is to make his way onto the college rowing team.
Negotiating some strangely flat training montages, Joe makes the final eight, a team of square-jawed, greased-back-hair have-nots. In typically Clooney-esque social crusading mode, they not only take on the posh kids at elite schools but later go up against the might of the Nazis at the Berlin Olympics (look out for a squirm-inducing meeting with Jesse Owens, and Hitler spitting feathers as the Yanks do their stuff).
A predictable but likeable retread of every cliché in the Sports Movie playbook
As such, nuance isn’t The Boys in the Boat’s strong point. Joe sparks up a colourless romance with childhood crush Joyce (Hadley Robinson) that climaxes in a train station kiss any Golden Age hack might have dismissed as too corny (The Boys in the Boat might well as be called ‘The Girls Around The Radio Cheering’, that’s how much the women have to do).
Mark L Smith’s screenplay is a by-the-numbers affair. At one point, a radio commentator practically announces the subtext that this group of scrappy upstarts is a metaphor for the American spirit in between a depression and a world war. Also, for a film about the importance of camaraderie and unity, there’s very little to evoke the squad’s unique bond. It’s one thing to emphasise the value of teamwork over the importance of the individual but something else to make your eight heroes pretty devoid of personality or subtlety. Only Jack Mulhern as a shy, piano-playing stroke registers beyond Turner.
Still, there is something comforting in Clooney’s adherence to old-school filmmaking values, Joel Edgerton turns toughness and sensitivity on a dime as gruff coach Al Ulbrickson, the race sequences are exciting and there’s some quirky period detail that adds much needed texture; the megaphones sported by the coxes are wired to their faces, a photo finish is rendered tense by ’30s analogue technology.
‘We need an edge!’ is Coach Ulbrickson’s verdict on his crew, and the same can be said about the film as a whole. But there is enough in The Boys in the Boat to keep you invested come the final showdown.
In UK cinemas Jan 12. In US theaters now.