This regatta doesn’t row enough laps.
George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” is a great-looking but misguided project about the University of Washington rowers who represented the United States in the men’s eight at the Summer Olympics of 1936. Based on Daniel James Brown’s novel, the movie represents the story by focusing on one team player-Joe Rantz (1914-2007)-and the main coach-Al Ulbrickson (1903-1980)-and their troubles in life. They can be valid, but this film version seems to be skittish about elaborating on them.
The screenplay was written by Mark L. Smith, whose last film “The Marsh King’s Daughter” was less special than “The Boys in the Boat,” but he isn’t a bad screenwriter. In fact, he helped with fresh pieces of entertainment like Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky,” Julius Avery’s “Overlord,” and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant.” He does what he can with the main characters, but he doesn’t broaden the true story’s horizons. You know. Give it more analysis, something to really allow the audience to want to watch a history movie.
It’s begins with Joe Rantz (Callum Turner from the last two “Fantastic Beasts” movies), who is studying to be an engineer at the University of Washington, but struggles to pay his tuition, and was abandoned by his family at such a young age. So, he’s on his own. So, his best bet is to try out for a rowing team, which he succeeds and earns the attention of Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton).
The coach is willing to play by his own rules with his team players when it comes to the Poughkeepsie Regatta and the upcoming Summer Olympics of 1936. That is if they can raise the funds to travel to Germany, which they do successfully.
When the boy reunites with his lousy father (Alec Newman), the old man tells him he owes him nothing and that he’s doing fine. Real father of the year. That’s when Joe begins to lose his concentration in the training, and that’s when Ulbrickson replaces him. But then, the boy gets some pep talk from the master boatman George (Peter Guinness), and he convinces the coach to let him back on the team.
A weaker sports movie this season was Taika Waititi’s soccer film “Next Goal Wins,” which was about a team that began as one of the worst soccer teams of all time. The biggest problem with that film was it didn’t allow us to take their story seriously, even though we were supposed to laugh at its comedy. We’re supposed to be rooting for a team on both sides of the equation.
“The Boys in the Boat” has some amazing looking rowing sequences, with cinematographer Matin Ruhe (who worked with Clooney on “The Midnight Sky” and “The Tender Bar”) making them look riveting, and allowing us to root for these rowers to win. It’s all about sportsmanship and teamwork that helped these boys reach to the top. But there’s not much character development within them.
I guess the film is only supposed to focus on Joe and Al and how they would connect in or outside their training, and both Turner and Edgerton do some nice work. I’m even more grateful these two didn’t succumb to clichés about questioning one’s authority, because it’s never the case here, and it’s relaxing. But a little more editing in the screenplay would have been enough to make the film as exhilarating as the true story.
At this rate, you’re better off getting a little exercise than sitting down to this. And in the winter, they do have indoor rowing. That could give you a jumpstart if you want to give this sport a shot.
In Theaters Christmas Day