TL;DR – A perfectly okay film that refuses to integrate any of the themes it proports to be exploring.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Boys in the Boat Review –

Today, we look at an interesting biographical film because, at its core, it is more interesting for what it does not do than what it is that we see in the final product. This creates a film that, by all metrics, is perfectly okay from a technical perspective, but the moment you integrate any of the narrative, you find it to have the solidity of balsa wood.  

So to set the scene, it is 1936 in Washington state, at the height of the Great Depression. Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) has spent most of his life sleeping rough but still managed to get into the University of Washington. But when financing becomes tight, he decides to take up an opportunity with the University rowing team because it comes with a room and a small financial compensation. The Washington University rowing team has not won a race in a long time, and coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) is starting to feel the pressure from above to place or get replaced. But could this new batch of rowers be the best crew he ever taught? And in an Olympic year, no less?

Now, I am going to be quite negative about this film, but that is because of some of the more intangible aspects of the production. However, I do want to make it clear that there are aspects of the film that do work. For example, all the actors are fine. I think Joel Edgerton is probably the big stand-out here, but much of the narrative revolves around him. The music is solid, and the production of the rowing segments is quite compelling. Except for these odd moments when you can tell everything is a digital double, but they only happen a couple of times during the film. There are also some moments with the cast that feel delightful, and you can tell they put a lot of work into getting the rowing to look at least camera-good.

However, while this film has a reasonably robust construction, the foundation it is built upon, the narrative, fundamentally let them down. At best, what we get is a very boilerplate narrative that feels like it is going through the motions. I know that since this is based on a true story, it makes it hard to write knowing that an outcome is assured. However, this felt like every underdog sporting film I have ever seen before, but with a rowing splash of paint over the top. Tack on a meaningless love story arc and some interpersonal conflicts that never go anywhere, and you get the film.

However, more than that, this movie breaks a cardinal sin of cinema. It purports to be a film exploring some deep issues but actually has nothing to say about them. The Boys in the Boat explores class, privilege, money, race, and power and, at best, has only a surface-level analysis of any of them. At the heart of this film is a story about wealth and class, but other than some tokenism, look at holes in shoes and maybe one rendition of “poor unfortunate souls”. More than that, the film starts romanticising traumatic experiences in a way that makes it clear that no one with the power to change things was coming from a lived experience remotely close to what they were depicting.

Then we have to talk about race, … look, I know, but there is a fundamental reason why every member of this team in the 1930s was white. You can’t escape that. But the film never once interrogates this, bar maybe one brief conversation with Jesse Owens (Jyuddah Jaymes), but that does not even come close to doing the bare minimum, which is even more problematic when you realise that this is a film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, which is a date that should be raising multiple red flags with you. Does the film interrogate Nazism? Also, no. One scene of a miffed Hitler (Daniel Philpott) does not counterbalance all the pomp and circumstance. This is even more egregious given that this is a core part of the book they were adapting for this film.       

In the end, do we recommend The Boys in the Boat? Generally, no. I mean, if you are super into rowing and want to watch a moment in American rowing history, then have at. However, they are the only people I think I can recommend this film to. If you liked The Boys in the Boat, we can recommend to you Uproar.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched The Boys in the Boat?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Boys in the Boat
Directed by –     George Clooney
Screenplay by – Mark L. Smith
Based on – The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Music by – Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography by – Martin Ruhe
Edited by – Tanya M. Swerling
Production/Distribution Companies – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Smokehouse Pictures, Spyglass Media Group, Amazon MGM Studios, Universal Pictures & Warner Bros. Pictures.
Starring – Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Peter Guinness, Sam Strike, Thomas Elms, Jack Mulhern, Luke Slattery, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Wil Coban, Thomas Stephen Varey, Joel Phillimore, James Wolk, Hadley Robinson, Courtney Henggeler, Chris Diamantopoulos, Glenn Wrage, Edward Baker-Duly, Adrian Lukis, Dominic Tighe, Alec Newman, Andrew Bridgmont, Jack Staddon, Jacob James Beswick, Jyuddah Jaymes, Frankie Fox, Sam Douglas, David Stoller, Austin Haynes, Nicholas Cass-Beggs, Jan Stratmann & Daniel Philpott
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: na; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: na; United States: PG-13