The Boys in the Boat (2023) * * *

Directed by: George Clooney

Starring:  Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Hadley Robinson, Courtney Henggeler, Peter Guinness, Chris Diamantopolous

Based on a true story, there isn't much about The Boys in the Boat you can't predict and that's just the way we like it.   It's an underdog sports story about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that won the gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Wait, you didn't think a movie would be made about an American team which won the bronze, do you?  Maybe there will be one, but not this one. 

What made the Washington rowers special is that they were a JV team and not varsity, a risky move which could have cost coach Al Ulbrickson (Edgerton) his job.   But Coach believed in this team of scrappy kids who came from working class families hardest hit by the Depression.  One of the rowers, Joe Rantz (Turner) lived in his car and attended school but joined the rowing team in order to secure a room, meals, and a job.  This is the edge Ulbrickson was counting on to defeat his rival California-Berkeley but also the Ivy Leaguers, who come from generations of wealth, in the national Olympic qualifiers. 

Director Clooney has a fondness for stories set in decades gone by.  Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) was set amidst the 1950's McCarthyism era, Leatherheads (2008) in the early days of 1920's pro football, The Monuments Men (2014) during World War II, and now The Boys in the Boat, which like the previous films vividly captures time and place while providing us stirring moments we can see a mile down the road.  The races are shot with style and skill, so we don't lose track of what's happening.   Other obstacles are thrown the Washington rowers' way, including the possibility of not going to Berlin at all unless they can raise $5,000 because the Olympic Committee suddenly and mysteriously ran out of money. 

With the exception of Rantz, the rest of the team is presented as interchangeable pieces of a puzzle with little depth given to the characters.   No matter.   Clooney is still able to give us a solid story that is skillfully woven and told.