Ah, sports movies. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. From The Natural to Any Given Sunday, from Rocky to Miracle, there’s nothing quite like watching an underdog defy the odds and emerge victorious. It can even make a sport as seemingly tame as rowing interesting. Or, at least, that’s what Hollywood A-lister/former People’s Sexiest Man Alive George Clooney tries to do with his latest directorial effort, The Boys in the Boat.
Set in 1936 during The Great Depression, The Boys in the Boat is about University of Washington Crew Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton from The Gift) as he assembles and guides his Junior Varsity 8-man rowing team in what he considers to be “the most difficult team sport in the world.” And the group of young men he puts together are good. Good enough to go from college JV to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
In many ways, The Boys in the Boat is just another sports movie, and it relies on the same tropes as any other. It’s an uphill climb for the team, but they are so good at what they do that there’s very little suspense or drama to the movie. Insurmountable roadblocks seem more like momentary distractions. The drama is all manufactured to make the story more interesting – a lack of chemistry between the team, the coach’s desperation for a win, inconsistencies within the sport’s rules. Even the setting of the Olympics – pre-WWII Nazi Germany – adds to the supposed obstacles to the team’s success. But it’s all very inorganic. No one believes for a second that these kids are going to fail.
In an attempt to humanize the unit of the team, Clooney concentrates on one rower named Joe Rantz (Callum Turner from Green Room). Joe becomes the face of the team in the eye of the viewer, and he is given an arc that includes joining the team to stay at school, tension between him and an absentee father, and a forced love story between him and a fourth-grade crush. It’s all window dressing to make the audience care a bit more, and it works. Joe is the most developed character, and as such, he is the one the audience wants to win.
To be fair, the race segments of the film are exhilarating. With help from the creative camerawork of cinematographer Martin Ruhe (The Tender Bar), Clooney does inject thrills there, and even when the audience understands the UW team’s strategy and how they execute it, there is still suspense that goes along with that strategy and execution. And while it may not quite be Miracle levels of cheering, it is satisfying. The Boys in the Boat gets the “Boat” part right.
For what it’s worth, the story of The Boys in the Boat is a compelling one. It’s just that it doesn’t seem like it needs a full two-hour movie to tell it, so it feels padded. And the characters aren’t interesting enough to fluff up that padding. And there aren’t enough races to fill up the time. So, it winds up feeling like short bursts of entertainment interrupted by long bouts of boredom. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
GRADE: C-
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and smoking
Release Date: December 25, 2023
Running Time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Studio: MGM
