‘The Boys in the Boat’ stays on course but could have used more splash

The 1936 Summer Olympics was one of the most significant sporting events of the 20th century. Jesse Owens became the first African American to win four track and field gold medals in a single Games. The Olympics took place in Berlin during the rise of Nazi Germany. Somewhat lost in all that was the shocking success of the University of Washington rowing team.

George Clooney brings to life this underdog story in The Boys in the Boat, based on the 2013 nonfiction book of the same name by author Daniel James Brown. This is Clooney’s second foray into directing a sports movie. The first didn’t go well as his football comedy Leatherheads (2008) was a box-office and critical flop. In The Boys in the Boat, Clooney plays it safe, never veering off course. It’s a solid but not spectacular effort that hits most of the right notes.

Credit Clooney for taking on this daunting task. Making an interesting movie about rowing brings unique challenges. It’s not like boxing or basketball where the on-the-field competition can carry the narrative. Rowing is a repetitive task with eight people working as one and a ninth—the coxswain—barking out instructions to teammates.

There aren’t many feature films made about rowing. It’s a niche sport. The most memorable rowing scene might be from David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010), and that movie isn’t about athletics. Clooney leans into the against-all-odds aspects of the story to build drama. That’s easy enough to do since rowing is perceived to be the sport of East Coast elites, and The Boys in the Boat mostly takes place in Seattle in the middle of the Great Depression.

Joe, played by Callum Turner, is poor and struggling to stay enrolled at Washington while pursuing an engineering degree. His dreams do not initially include becoming a member of the rowing team. He only tries out as a means to pay for college. From there, the story goes where you expect it to with little surprises. He and several other scrappy longshots are molded into winners by the taskmaster with a heart of gold.

Joel Edgerton portrays Al Ulbrickson, the real-life legendary Washington coach. Edgerton does a decent enough job as he must navigate budget shortcomings and bureaucracy interference. But the main problem with The Boys in the Boat is that most of the characters aren’t compelling enough. Even in the scenes where Joe is fighting with his teammates and his coach, you never get a sense of actual tension. Both conflicts are quickly resolved.

Even in the climax, you find yourself cheering for the outcome rather than the individual participants. The most interesting character in the entire film isn’t one of the rowers. 

Hadley Robinson provides a spark as Joe’s love interest, Joyce. Robinson was underused in the second season of Winning Time as Jeanie Buss. In The Boys in the Boat, Robinson is a joy to watch in every scene. She provides a welcome contrast to moody Turner who rarely smiles at all.

Clooney didn’t direct The Boys in the Boat to be a romantic drama. He wanted to do justice to a piece of American history that most of us didn’t know about. For the most part, he succeeded. The rowing scenes are believable and audiences will learn a lot.

You just wish this sports drama had a little more splash.

For more information on the 1936 Washington rowing team, visit here.