When George Clooney gets behind the camera, the result is almost always at least a solid movie, or in cases like his last film, The Tender Bar [2021], a pretty good one. Now, Clooney is adapting the story of a Washington University rowing team that defies expectations and makes it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Daniel James Brown.

The character of Callum Turner takes up rowing more out of financial necessity to continue his studies than out of a passion for the sport. The character of Joe is where the two narratives of the movie come together. On the one hand, a typical sports drama that can be seen countless times every year in a slightly different form; on the other hand, a social exit face through education. Clooney doesn't find his own way into the genre and relies on a typical underdog story with familiar shots of athletes pushing themselves to their limits, a coach watching his athletes tense up, and cheering spectators. Of course, The Boys in the Boat [2023] is not without a training montage and the typical love story of the main character without any depth.

The movie certainly doesn't do anything new in the field of sports movies, but everything is on a good level. For example, there is the character of Peter Guinness, who is the designer of the boat, an important link in the movie between the athlete and the sports equipment, and also a mentor figure, who with his knowledge and experience always has the right advice in the right place, and let's be honest, it is precisely because of these characters that we love sports movies so much, whether it is Kurt Russell in Miracle [2004] or Burgess Meredith in Rocky [1976]. Joel Edgerton, on the other hand, will not be remembered as the coach of the rowing team, a role that is reduced to the bare minimum and is uniformly there to deliver "motivational" statements like "it's not about you, it's about the team, or row for your country" every now and then.

So where is the strength of the movie if it's not in the story or the characters? Obviously in the visuals, Clooney succeeds in creating a coherent movie world that fits perfectly into the era. The sets and costumes are a faithful representation of the 1930s and a successful composition for the viewer's eye.

And then there are the scenes in the boat, the heart of the movie. Even though everyone knows how this type of sports movie will end, the editing and camera still manage to create a sense of excitement for every inch of water. The montage of the athletes, the water, the oars, the spectators, and how one boat passes the other bit by bit is perfectly staged and the tension of the moment is perfectly built up. In one scene, the tension is taken to the extreme as spectators, coaches and athletes wait for the decisive finish photo to be developed and analyzed.

I don't think you need to have seen this movie, and it never comes close to the power of The Tender Bar [2021]. The characters are mostly not worth talking about and the story is not really interesting. But as soon as the athletes get into the boat and push through the water with their paddle strokes, piece by piece, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

A pretty standard sports biopic. It successfully tells a feel-good underdog story.

Events do meander in parts, but for the vast majority it's a solid watch. Callum Turner is, as you'd expect given he's the main character, the film's standout, I enjoyed his performance. Joel Edgerton is good too, as is Hadley Robinson in a small role. I also dug the score used throughout, at plenty of moments I could feel myself appreciating Alexandre Desplat's work.

One thing, and the only thing if I'm honest, that I didn't like was how the film uses Adolf Hitler at the end. It just felt needless, especially as they overshow him reacting to the rowing like 4 or 5 times in a short period. Then he walks offscreen in a down-on-his-luck movie baddie sorta way, rather than as a literal evil dictator. Just odd. The likeness of the actor threw me off a bit as well, if not for the stache I wouldn't have known it was that guy to be honest.

Tangent aside, 'The Boys in the Boat' is a satisfactory movie.

Living out of a dilapidated old car on a piece of waste ground in a suburb of Seattle, Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) travels each day to the University of Washington where he studies engineering. Using newspapers to stop-up the holes in his boots, we learn quickly that he's pretty poverty stricken and when told he has to fund the second half of his semester, is facing quite a challenge. Luckily, his pal Roger Morris (Sam Strike) discovers that getting a spot on the rowing team would get them both a job and a bed. To the try-outs they go, but they don't expect virtually everyone else to be there too! A tough series of rigorous training exercises ensue and thanks to a developing relationship with boat-builder George Pocock (Peter Guinness) he actually begins to want this. It's not just about the job anymore - it's about pride in achievement. The fact that it also impresses Joyce Simdars (Hadley Robinson) as well is no bad thing, so under the guidance of head coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) the team is selected and must attempt to break some recent ducks to ensure it's continued funding and to, maybe, get a place at the forthcoming Berlin Olympiad. I first saw Turner in "Glue" (2014) and thought he had potential as a decent looking and quite proficient actor who seems to play the more reticent and shy character effectively. Here he works well as a man with a mission. Edgerton is also on good-form as the inspirational teacher but the star of the show for me, though, is their feisty and shrewd little cox Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery) who rather summed up the whole ethos of the all-for-one team spirit. The photography and general look of the film is engaging, as is the Alexandre Desplat score and George Clooney allows Turner et al to deliver a story of strong characters in the face of tough circumstances naturally and sympathetically. Not too sure Adolf was too impressed at the end!