Movie Review: The Boys in the Boat

 Movie Review Number 1 of 2024

The Movie: The Boys in the Boat

The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

Stars: 3.75

This is a solid Friday night, feel-good sort of film, which, along with a stable of other movies of the same ilk, won out due to timing. I mean, who doesn't like a good underdog story on a Friday night? And you get to learn something in the meantime - it can't be bad. 

According to RottenTomatoes.Com, The Boys in the Boat  "... is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world." The movie is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. 

And a true underdog story it is. It centres around Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) a kid who is down on his luck and struggling to stay at university. The rowing team is his way to a roof over his head and tuition money. This is post-Great Depression America, and there are many people in his predicament. 

Along with Joe, there's the coach, Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) who is trying to keep rowing a part of the University of Washington. With next to no funds and an administration giving them no slack, he and his group of coaches handpick this team of seeming misfits to row for their Junior Varsity crew. None of the team members had rowed before. None of them came from money, unlike many of the other crews who would be rowing the eights against them - think Harvard, Princeton and the other Ivy League schools. 

What I liked about this film is that is concentrated a lot on the rowing. As somebody who spends a bit of time on an erg (rowing machine) it was good to see the point of it all. But the film got into the technicalities of this very difficult sport to master. 

With a run time of two hours and two minutes, director George Clooney packs a lot in, keeping the action moving without tipping into full schmaltz. Clooney has had a number of hits with his historical fi;ms - Goodnight and Good Luck and The Monuments Men being two of these. He seems to America in the early 20th Century really well. He also sets a decent pace. Although most viewers will know the result of the 1936 Berlin Olympics Rowing Men's Eight, the movie keeps you barracking for this group of plucky outsiders. 

I also loved the costumes and sets, which show a very different side to the America we often see in the 30s. Ragged clothes and battered shoes are only a part of it. Washington is not a wealthy state, but you see a place, and people, with great heart. 

And something else that I really enjoyed, you get to watch eight incredibly ripped men row for two hours. This is not a bad thing at all. 

This film comes from the heart. Yes, it's a bit predictable as we know the outcome, and of course, as it has an American theme, it's a bit hokum, but in all, The Boys in the Boat, is an enjoyable diversion. I'm also keen to read the book. No need to see it in the cinema, but it will make great evening watching when it gets on the streaming services. 

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