George Clooney’s latest film “The Boys in the Boat” is a typical underdog sports drama which does not have much surprise for us. As a story about one underdog sports team which surprises everyone as going up and up against all odds, it has almost every necessary element to be inspiring, but these elements in the story somehow do not row that well together in the movie compared to those boys in the boat.

At first, the movie starts with the introduction of Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a plain lad studying at the University of Washington in 1936. Like many other people during that time, Rantz is quite poor to say the least, and we see his daily struggle between his college study and his frequent hardships outside the university. While he really wants to graduate and then become an engineer someday, he is constantly reminded of his current economic status everyday, and things become more desperate for him when he must pay more money for his college education.

While looking for any possible option for him along with his close friend, Rantz comes across a notice on the tryout to be held by the rowing team of the university. Mainly because of the considerable economic benefits from becoming a rowing team member, Rantz and his friend decide to apply for the tryout without much thought, but, what do you know, the competition turns out to be quite stiff, and they and many other young men are soon subjected to a series of arduous physical tests conducted by Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerdon), the coach of the rowing team.

Although he is your average unflappable coach, Ulbrickson knows too well how important the upcoming season is, and he and his staff members are ready to try their best as much as possible. At the end of their tryout, 8 young men including Rantz and his friend are selected as the junior group of the team, and then Ulbrickson and his staff members embark on testing their new team members more. As carefully checking up the strong and weak points of each of their new team members, they must find the right arrangement of the boys on their new boat, and it is naturally followed by a series of trials and errors before Ulbrickson comes to realize what is really necessary for his boys. They need a really good coxswain who can lead and boost them for more power and strength, and Ulbrickson knows the right one, though that person in question is a bit too headstrong for him at times.

Once everything clicks well together for Rantz and his colleagues, his team starts to surprise not only their coach but also everyone else. In their first official competition, they beat one of their main competitors, and this surely excites everyone in the University of Washington. After observing how the boys excel a lot more than expected, Ulbrickson comes to have much more confidence on them than before, and he eventually decides to do a rather risky gamble with them, though his bold decision is not welcomed that much by many people in the university.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Ulbrickson and his boys come to distinguish themselves more as the surprising underdog team of that year. However, Mark L. Smith’s screenplay, which is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Daniel James Brown, simply sails on their athletic advance without much development in terms of story and character, and that is the main disappointment in the film. While Rantz and many other main characters including Ulbrickson are more or less then broad archetypes, the movie does not delve that much into the human aspects of Rantz and several other colleagues, and a romantic subplot involved with Rantz’ girlfriend is redundant at best and superficial at worst.

At least, the movie does not disappoint us in case of the competition sequences, which are certainly its main highlight as expected. Clooney and his crew members including cinematographer Martin Ruhe and editor Tanya M. Swerling did a good job of bringing enough tension and verisimilitude to these key moments including the climatic one unfolded in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and the actors on the boats are mostly convincing with their sweaty efforts vividly shown on the screen.

The main cast members of the movie try their best in filling their respective roles. While Callum Turner humbly holds the center as required, Peter Guinness, Jack Mulhern, and James Wolk have each own moment along the story, Joel Edgerton, who has been one of ever-dependable character actors during last two decades, ably imbues his very typical character with a bit of life and personality. Although we are not so surprised when his character gives a big motivation speech in front of Rantz and several other team members around the end of the story, Edgerton deftly handles this clichéd moment with enough sincerity, and the result is a little more dramatically effective than expected.

On the whole, “The Boys in the Boat” is a conventional sports drama film which will not impress you that much especially if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me, and you may also want to check out the two better movies directed by Clooney. After making a promising directorial debut with “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002), he seemed to advance further with his second feature film “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005), but his next several films including “The Monuments Men” (2014) were not particularly memorable in comparison, and neither is “The Boys in the Boat”. Considering that his prime period seems to be over these days after he won two respective Oscars for “Syriana” (2005) and “Argo” (2012), the lackluster result of “The Boys in the Boat” is not so surprising, but I sincerely hope that he may do better in the next time.