Clooney stays creaky with 'The Boys in the Boat'
MGM
The issue isn’t the rowing; “The Novice” took young people in a boat and turned it into “Whiplash” on the water. The problem with “The Boys in the Boat” is, sadly, almost everything: Despite being based on the true story of the University of Washington students who worked their way to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the latest disappointment from director George Clooney (“The Tender Bar,” “The Midnight Sky”) is weak as American history, as sports movie, and as coming-of-age drama.
Once again, the tremendous actor and highly likable human fails to illuminate a story beyond an overwhelming sense of blandness. “Miracle,” this is not. “Boat” is more like if “School Ties” exclusively focused on the football team while neglecting what makes one team perform differently from another or what should make us distinguish each competitor. This is an issue of directing, writing, and acting, with numerous performances here (including Callum Turner as Joe Rantz and Sam Strike as Roger Morris) fading into the background without registering what makes them work as a team. If there’s useful information here about the nuances of building a champion rowing team, I must’ve dozed off during the ninth montage. (Just kidding; there are only four.)
In theory, the Depression-era “The Boys in the Boat,” adapted by Mark L. Smith (“The Midnight Sky”) from Daniel James Brown’s nonfiction book, should shine as an uplifting tale of working-class determination, as a bunch of newbies and nobodies rise to global attention at a time when Americans needed a reason to feel excited. In practice, only Hadley Robinson (as Joe’s girlfriend Joyce) livens up the proceedings, with Clooney even getting an uncharacteristically forgettable turn from Joel Edgerton as coach Ulbrickson.
Naturally the eventual presence of Nazis changes the stakes, to put it mildly, but that just makes this a good time to catch up with 2016’s “Race” if you missed it. (Hell, even the obviously more entertaining “Cool Runnings” has more to say.) As swift and compelling as rowing on land, “Boat” (which even includes an embarrassing, corny, and deeply unnecessary framing device) isn’t really attuned to class or character or intolerance; it’s too busy gliding generically over how this happened, or why we should care.
D+
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