The Boys In The Boat (12A)

In the Depression era, families struggle to survive across America. Joe Rantz is homeless following the death of his mother and his father's abandonment. With a two-week deadline to pay outstanding tuition fees, Joe responds to an offer of free accommodation and a part-time job from the University of Washington to any young man who wins a spot on the rowing team under Coach Al Ulbrickson. Joe makes the cut and earns a place in the junior boat.

LondonNet Film Review

The Boys In The Boat (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

A rousing true story of Depression-era underdogs pulling together as a rowing team for a shot at glory at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin is ambrosia for an emotionally led director like George Clooney. Based on Daniel James Brown’s book, The Boys In The Boat is an unabashedly old-fashioned drama of triumph against overwhelming odds that luxuriates in chocolate box images of perfectly synchronised oars scything through rippling water bathed in golden sun. The physically and mentally gruelling sport of rowing isn’t obviously cinematic. Blistered hands and a broken oar feel somehow underpowered next to a slow-motion knockout punch in a boxing ring, a last-gasp goal or touchdown on a football pitch or a jockey winning by a nose in the final furlong…

Clooney and editor Tanya Swerling work hard to energise sequences on the water, capturing sweat-slathered exertions of a strapping ensemble cast led by London-born Callum Turner as a motherless loner, who is abandoned by his father at the age of 14 for a new family, and schools himself to be self-reliant. It’s sink or swim and Turner’s stoic character does the latter, providing an instantly endearing focal point on which screenwriter Mark L Smith can hang touching scenes of self-empowerment, a flimsy romantic subplot and some heavy-handed class warfare.

The Depression bites hard in 1936 Seattle, Washington, and 22-year-old Joe Rantz (Turner) lives hand to mouth in a burnt-out car while he studies engineering at the University of Washington alongside classmate Roger Morris (Sam Strike) and childhood crush Joyce Simdars (Hadley Robinson). With a two-week deadline to pay his outstanding tuition fees, Joe responds to an advert promising free lodging and part-time employment to any young man who wins a coveted spot on the university’s rowing team under Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) and his deputies, coaches Bolles (James Wolk) and Brown (Dominic Tighe).

Desperation propels Joe to the brink of physical exhaustion and he secures seat two in the junior boat with Roger at the bow and bombastic cox Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery) barking orders at the stern. Eyes quickly turn to the forthcoming Poughkeepsie Regatta which determines the university boat that will proudly represent Team USA at the impending Olympics.

The Boys In The Boat maintains a steady stroke rate as young dreamers are whipped into shape with a conventional training montage before they draw strength from fraternal bonds to power through viral infection and self-doubt. Thinly written female characters exist solely to support men’s sporting ambitions and cheer from the sidelines. Clooney hits each predictable emotional beat and he builds to a grandstand finish that advocates loudly for guts and brawn to overcome privilege and fascism by the finish line.

– Sarah Lee