The Boys in the Boat

George Clooney’s disarmingly old-school rowing movie gets it right.

It’s unexceptionally filmed and occasionally clunky, but this is a gently heart-warming underdog story, and Turner shows real star-power in the lead role.

The Boys in the Boat is an old-fashioned and solid historical biography that ticks a lot of the right boxes. It’s not going to set tongues wagging but what it does do is tell an inspiring story with polish and a deftness befitting the genre.

An unapologetically formulaic tale of triumph against the odds.

As pleasant and sedate as a pedalo ride on a spring day.

The film struggles to rally any concrete idea of what these athletes should mean to us. Supposedly it’s a film about unity... but cares little for the people beyond its perfunctory protagonist.

The techniques on display in The Boys in the Boat are so obvious, redundant even, that we become aware of the manipulation, and thus lose investment.

Dads will love The Boys in the Boat.

I have no doubt the real Joe Nantz and his coach and teammates were fine, complex human beings who certainly deserve to be more than mannequin-esque characters in a film that indulges every sports-movie trope.

Although the characters sometimes lack the necessary charisma to successfully advance the plot, it is important to highlight that the boat racing scenes are masterfully filmed. [Full review in Spanish]