The Boys in the Boat is the latest directorial feature from actor George Clooney and follows the journey of an 8-man row boat team as they overcome their odds and become amongst the beat in row boating. I can’t way I, nor either anyone else I communicate with in regards to film, was ever looking forward to this. With this bound to release to Prime Video fairly soon, I still took the time to watch this as I do believe George Clooney has some strengths as a director. His setbacks seem to outweigh his strengths, but I will still watch what he directs. Unfortunately, this was not it.

The film starts off on a promising note by following Callum Turner as Joe Rantz as he joins the row crew team in order to make more money to help fund his tuition. Callum Turner is perhaps the best character to focus as he delivers a solid performance. Due to name recognition, Joel Edgerton’s name is right above his credits and thus, the film struggles with knowing what it wants to focus on. By focusing on Turner’s character, the film has a grounded premise and Turner is terrific as a character who is clearly closed off from the rest of the world due to his hardships, making him an extremely relatable character. It’s when you throw in Edgerton, Turner’s love interest, and the rest of the team, is when the film loses focus on what it wants to tell.

After all of this set up, there is never really any mention of Turner’s money problems again. It’s just sort of resolved, because it’s never brought up again. After Turner makes the team, the story somewhat focuses on Coach Ulbrickson, played by Edgerton. His story just feels easy. He happens to know all of the right decisions and is barely challenged. He has it pretty easy with his wife, too. It’s all just way too easy, making the script unoriginal and the characterization fall flat on its face. When the film tries to focus on the team members in certain segments, you never get the real sense as to who these people are, so it never really hits home at all when one team member is sick or another is really good at the piano. There is nothing interesting that makes them act as one as much as the conclusion likes to think they do. When characters randomly bicker then come together in the row boat, there’s nothing that they have to over come, thus making all of the resolutions forgettable and easy.

Then, there is the relationship of Turner’s love interest. She is randomly introduced through sitting next to Turner. Her dialogue made me question why this was all happening so suddenly. She mentions that she knows that he has had a crush on her since the fourth grade. There is no clear motive of why she decided to pursue him at that moment. It reminded me of when Lily James pursued Zac Efron in The Iron Claw. It made sense for her to do that, because she didn’t know him. Here, they have known each other for at least ten years. Why now? It just feels like the film doesn’t have a clear connection with its female characters and lack any depth.

When the film hits its climax, it once again changes course with its plot and makes it about these boys going against Nazi Germany, which may be good if this was something that was established in the beginning. To make matters worse, we get this awful Adolf Hitler look-alike during this scene to ensure you know that the film has a villain. It just felt out of place and to give viewers more of a reason to root for its characters, because the characters themselves lack depth.

One technical aspect that I will give the film props for is the cinematography. It’s one element that worked for the film. It balances well with the production design, but it also heightens the races. I was quite impressed with how the camera could keep up with the row boats. Even more, I found the rest of the film to be lit and shot incredibly well. If anything, I will give the film props for making this look like a modern film to give viewers something more to connect with.

Overall, other than the impressive modern-looking cinematography & solid performance from Callum Turner, this is just an Oscar-bait film that’s played way too safe. The script is a mess, the characterization is nonsensical, and the direction lacks focus on what type of story it wants to revolve around. Even though this feels like George Clooney playing it safe for the sake of getting more directing jobs, I will still continue to support his work. Something great is bound to come out… Right?

VERDICT: Pretty Bad