Legendary actor and inconsistent director George Clooney brings the #1 New York Times Bestselling Non-Fiction novel to the big screen and along with screenplay writer Mark L. Smith, manages to suck the life out of what is an exciting story.
Buy The Boys in the Boat Blu-rayThe tale of the inexperienced 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin is a true underdog story. The movie unfortunately is a montage of training and racing sequences filled with turns you will see coming a mile away. The only thing you won’t see coming is the introduction of irrelevant characters that come and go faster than a crew can complete a two-mile race.
Our story focuses primarily on Joe (Callum Turner), the homeless college student who tries out for the rowing team in hopes of obtaining housing and a job. Joe has a girlfriend (Hadley Robinson) because, well, there can only be so many training and racing sequences. Eventually, we meet Joe’s dad (Alec Newman) who had left him when he was 14 in search of work. So now we have multiple people rooting for Joe. Sadly, Joe is the only member of the team we really get to know other than Joe’s best friend and classmate Roger (Sam Strike), who tells Joe about the tryouts for the rowing team and the benefits of making the team. Roger makes the team with Joe, but quickly becomes just another face in the boat. Our list of characters also includes a risk-taking coach (Joel Edgerton), his supportive wife (Courtney Henggeler), a Mr. Miyagi-type boat builder (Peter Guinness), and a shy kid (Wil Coban) who gets sick until it is time for the big race. The circumstances tend to be the primary antagonist in the story other than an occasional bureaucrat. All the standard elements are here; sadly, they remain unexplored and undeveloped.
There was a point in the film when the coach decides to get a new coxswain (the guy in the boat who does not row) for the team. He calls Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery) into his office and tells him he is going to give him a second chance. I sat there thinking that I must have missed something. What happened on his first chance? I rewound the movie to find the answer, but it wasn’t there. This was the first we have seen or heard of Bobby. Just another example of poor storytelling.
The cinematography by Martin Ruhe is arguably the best part of the film. The music by Alexandre Desplat is pleasant but too familiar.
The Boys in the Boat receives “Ron’s Rejection”. This is 123 minutes of wasted potential and talent. Hopefully, someone will give this story the effort it deserves.
