‘The Boys In The Boat’ Review – Underdog Sports Tale Is As Wooden As The Boats Themselves

In 1936, the University of Washington had a championship rowing team. They would go on to compete for Gold at the Olympic games in Berlin, during Hitler’s reign. Based on the New York Times best-selling book by Daniel James Brown, George Clooney sits in the director’s chair once again to tell the inspiring true tale of the eight men who came together to achieve a most difficult task. Led by Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner, the film does everything it can to elevate rowing as an intense, thrilling sport, which it succeeds in, but it does little for anything else.

The biggest issue here comes from the screenplay written by Marc L. Smith. It is hard to tell if the film was pressed for time, but much of the connection between the actual boys in the boat is all but extinguished in the final product. There are eight of them, and we spend most of our time with just one, with a little bit of background on three others, but that’s about it. Throughout the film, you’re likely not to remember a single character’s name or face as we never spend more than a scene with any of them. 

Our main focus is on Turner’s Joe Rantz. He’s a poor kid who tries out for the rowing team because it pays, and it’ll keep him in school. It’s a solid premise that never fully gets a payoff. We see Joe at the bursar’s office once but he never returns. Even as the team builds success, we never learn of what his collegiate aspirations were, what he wanted to do after college, or if he ever did it. The character is written fairly thin, and he’s the lead, which leaves even less room for any other character to develop either.

Joe becomes friends with a classmate, Roger (Sam Strike) who initially comes off as a bit of a slacker. His tendency to want to joke around and not be so serious annoys Joe in the beginning. Then, the two make the team together, and this personality trait is never brought up again. There are even moments through the film when Roger is even more dedicated to the team than Joe is. This continues through the few members of the team we meet. Don Hume (Jack Mulhern) is shy and reclusive but has a talent for the piano. Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery) once led the varsity team, but was kicked off, and brought back to lead the junior varsity team. The excuse given is that he likes to do his own thing and ignore the coach, but this trait is again never brought back up.

Each character feels as wooden as the boats they row in – usually given one trait, if that, and then ignored as the film goes on. Perhaps, the reason for it may be that there was a lot of attention paid to the sport instead. And in that regard, they nailed it. We get some pretty excellent montages of the guys trying out for the team, and the practices against the varsity squad. Each time the boys are actually in the boat, it is a thrilling display of direction and editing. The camera grabs every angle it can during the matches. Looking at the wrists of the rowers, the technique they’re using, the pace of their strokes, and the way they have to work in unison to get the pulls they need to increase their speed and push past the others. 

A beautiful blend of in-shot and drone camera work fluctuates throughout each match, giving it the excitement, and showing the effort it takes to win, leaving you with that rousing, fist-pumping, underdog spirit that all great sports stories need. Maybe the film does not do much in terms of selling its own story, but it certainly increases the excitement for the next story on rowing and lets everyone know how much of a sport it really is. 

The Boys In The Boat will open exclusively in theaters on December 25, 2023, courtesy of Amazon and MGM Studios. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfEA-udzjjQ]