The Boys in the Boat

➤Rated PG-13
➤Theaters

The Boys in the Boat is based on the true story of the University of Washington’s rowing team, which competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Directed by George Clooney, it’s an energetic and entertaining sports movie that families with older teens can enjoy together. The movie is an adaptation of the excellent book by Daniel James Brown, and is just as satisfying.

The story takes place in the midst of the Great Depression. For a handful of fortunate boys, a spot in the boat (a “shell” in rowing parlance) means more than simply participating in sport. It’s a part-time job, food, and a place to live. For the rest of America, sending the boys to compete in the Olympics means a chance to give the Nazis what for.

Making the team is no easy feat. Rowing is one of the most technically demanding sports, requiring tremendous discipline at relentless intervals. Rowers must precisely ­balance a combination of strength and agility. In the book, a reporter quips, “Neighbor, it’s no game for softies.” But the freshman boys are eager and, in the case of Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), desperate. About 50 boys show up for tryouts. Only eight make the team, including Rantz and his chatty classmate Roger Morris (Sam Strike).

At first, the new recruits flounder in the water, losing control of the oars, also known as “catching a crab.” The boys endure long days filled with conditioning workouts and hours in the water, all while still balancing classes and homework. They are tired, cramped, and in a near-perpetual state of ravenous hunger. But, with the help of coxswain Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery), the freshman team shows a kind of determination that coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) has never seen before.

The Depression carved the heart out of many Americans, and the need to rely on his crewmates proves a challenge for Joe Rantz, who had given up depending on anyone but himself when he was 14.

While the book explores Rantz’s upbringing and Western roots, the movie emphasizes Rantz as an insecure adult. Rowing is traditionally a classy, gentleman’s sport, and Rantz finds himself in the awkward position of needing to make a living at it.

Several individuals also confront Rantz’s self-reliance, including a meditative British man named George Pocock (Peter Guinness), Washington’s boat-maker, and Rantz’s grade school sweetheart, Joyce Simdars (Hadley Robinson). To heighten the romance, director Clooney takes a few liberties in ­portraying the relationship between Joe and Joyce. But he doesn’t take liberties in showcasing the platonic camaraderie between the freshmen boys. Heedless of Hollywood’s DEI czars, he doesn’t even include jokes about same-sex attraction.

The movie’s PG-13 rating is mostly for some foul language and smoking. There’s one off-color joke and a suggestive moment between a married couple. Rantz also pokes fun at a woman he remembers always having a “Bible in her hand.” In the book, though, the woman in question was a Christian Scientist, so I’m not sure if it counts as a slight against Christianity.

The movie beautifully portrays the athletes’ discipline through aerial shots of their rowing and during more subtle, less glorious moments. There’s one scene in particular where, after a long day of classes and brutal hours in the racing shell, Rantz picks up a broom and starts sweeping the boathouse, just because it seems like the right thing to do.

If you liked the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand but felt let down by the 2014 movie, you might find The Boys in the Boat a refreshing film. Daniel James Brown’s book will entertain readers interested in the history of the Depression, competitive rowing, and Nazi Germany, and Clooney’s adaptation preserves enough of what makes the story special that watching The Boys in the Boat is worthwhile, whether you’ve read the book or not.