For his ninth film, The Boys in the Boat, director George Clooney has chosen to tell the true story of Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a member of The University of Washington men’s eight rowing team who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympic games in Berlin.
Clooney has fashioned a competent if somewhat underwhelming tale of sports heroism with the film only really coming to life in the rowing scenes. The pacing of the film struggles at times as there’s very little drama happening on screen when the boys aren’t in the boat. Sure the boys are poor but that’s about as much as we get to know about them, oh and someone gets a cold at a most inopportune moment and that’s about it. Even Joel Edgerton’s rowing coach could have been transferred from any generic sports biopic filmed in the last 30 years.
Chariots of Fire The Boys in the Boat isn’t. It’s enjoyable but no more than that.
3/5
The Boys In The Boat
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike
